Christmas Dinner
by Agent Flamingo
Summary: All the family get together, 12 years on from end of S3. SV,JI. Twist added!
1. Supermarket

Author Note: This is my first published fanfic, so reviews would be very helpful. Thank you! Kate  
  
Disclaimer- Alias doesn't belong to me  
  
Crash! Sydney Bristow turned around quickly to see what had happened, a large smile creeping onto her face when she surveyed the supermarket scene around her.  
  
A small girl, with brown hair in bunches had slammed into a pile of tins, which had been precariously balanced a few moments before by one of the store assistants. She looked down at her 5-year-old daughter, waiting for her to tell her what had happened in the cute way she always did when she created trouble.  
  
"I didn't mean to mommy, Josh was chasing me and I accidentally ran into them." Syd raised her eyebrows and sighed, it wasn't the first time that excuse had been made.  
  
"Josh, will you please stop chasing your sister, you're old enough to know better"  
  
"But she provoked me Mom, she said that I'd been too bad and that Grandma Irina wouldn't give me a Christmas present" the tall dark-haired boy complained  
  
Syd glanced down at her 8-year-old son and said "You should know better Josh, stop letting her wind you up, Georgia, come over here and help me shop. We've got a lot to do and I don't want to be thrown out of the store ok?"  
  
" Ok!" She replied, "Who's coming to dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's again, I forgot their names" she said sheepishly at the mock exasperated look her mother gave her  
  
Sydney managed to finish the rest of the shopping trip within an hour, fielding as many random questions as she could about her family from her two youngest. She couldn't tell them as much about their father's family, who would also be attending their mammoth Christmas dinner the next day at her parents, but she did her best.  
  
"Well Grandma Irina's two sisters Katya and Yelena are coming with their families. Katya is coming with her husband Russell and her son, Julian. He is bringing his wife Mariana and their two kids, James and Christina."  
  
"Mommy! Mommy! Will they play with me?" Georgia asked. Syd laughed  
  
"I don't know sweetheart, I've never met Julian's family, but from what I've heard from Katya they are pretty nice."  
  
*I hope they are, considering Sark is their father, I still cant get over the fact he has a family now... ugh, its enough to make me shudder... its just so weird.... I've never seen him act with love towards anyone...Well maybe towards his mother in the last few years, if he hadn't mellowed out slightly he certainly wouldn't be coming *  
  
"I've never met Yelena, but she is bringing a husband and three kids with her, I think they are older than you sweetheart though. On your dad's side, we have Grandmere Celia coming, bringing her sister Stephanie and your Aunt Marie. Marie is bringing Pierre and John, do you remember them from our trip to France Josh?"  
  
"Yep, Pierre is my age and John is Claudia's age isn't he?" He answered after a moment  
  
"Yes, that's right, and that's just about everyone who's flying in to join us. If you count the three of us, Grandma Irina, Grandpa Jack, your father and Claudia then it makes 24 of us for dinner, which is why we are doing it at your Grandparents mansion, we can fit everyone around Grandma's two big tables."  
  
"How come you don't know some of your family mommy, and why do you live so far away from them? Don't you love them?" Georgia asked curiously.  
  
"Because Grandma Irina came over here from Russia many years ago and met Grandpa Jack. I was born and brought up here in LA. Katya and Yelena stayed mostly in Russia and I didn't meet Katya till about 12 years ago, just before I married your father. I have known my cousin Julian for about 15 years though, my mother, um, introduced us."  
  
* Well its not like I can tell them the exact truth. "Oh, I met my cousin after he assassinated someone for my mothers terrorist organisation"*  
  
"He lives in Italy now with his new wife and kids, I still see him a few times a year but I've never had the chance to meet the others. C'mon, we had better get moving, I told your father to expect us home for dinner at six, and its already a quarter to."  
  
After Syd got them strapped safely into the car and onto the road, she allowed herself a bit of time to think, a skill she had acquired to do whilst driving safely throughout her many experiences on the run from tails.  
  
*I can't believe we are really getting the whole family together in one place. I hope it wasn't a bad idea. Mom promised she would be on her best behaviour with Vaughn's mom, they hadn't got on ever since Celia learned the truth about her killing her husband all those years ago. At least Celia accepts that is in the past, and that they are going to have to be polite to each other in front of the kids. *  
  
"HEY" A noise suddenly jolted Sydney out of her reverie; the kids were fighting again. "Guys, please stop doing that, we're nearly home now" She sighed, and let her thoughts continue.  
  
*I cant help but wonder what Yelena is going to be like, I hope she is a good Derevko. It's going to be weird for her being around her family again, I hope she doesn't blame me and dad for keeping Mom away so long. I wouldn't blame her, according to Katya; Yelena worshipped her, and now she's out here permanently, remarried to dad, living a retired life. Well nearly, I know she still has her contacts, and that comes in pretty useful for us sometimes. I still can't believe Dad is finally going to retire next year. I doubt it will be successful, he hates not being at work, he only agreed to leave so he could spend more time at home with my very bored mother. *  
  
Syd smiled at the thought, her mother could get extremely cranky when she was bored and Jack had seen it as a sign she needed to be kept occupied more frequently. He didn't want her going back to her old ways, not after all the trouble he had gone to getting her a pardon and a job as a CIA informant.  
  
Syd noticed she had reached their house, situated in the suburbs of LA only two blocks from the sea. She turned up the driveway and let the kids get out. She finished getting the shopping bags out of the trunk and turned towards the door, a smile quickly spreading across her face when she saw who was standing there. "Vaughn". 


	2. Stress

A/N. Thanks to M is for Moi for reviewing! I know it's a big family, I kinda freaked out when I counted em up! I welcome constructive criticism happily, so I would really appreciate reviews! Hope you like this chapter; it was kinda hard to write Irina like this! Flashbacks are in bold, thinking indicated by *…*

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Alias but I don't, just all the characters you don't recognise!

Irina was stressed. Very stressed. And when she got this stressed she liked to clean, a lot. It was Christmas Eve and she hadn't been able to sleep the previous night. Well, she had fallen asleep in Jack's arms at around 1 am but she woke again three hours later, shivering and feeling like she wanted to be sick. She couldn't remember feeling like this since she had first found out she was pregnant with Sydney over 40 years ago, and she hated it. Her husband couldn't believe it was possible to her to feel this bad, he had joked only that morning that she was the strongest 64 year old woman in the whole world, that however, was before she ran to the nearest bathroom to be sick. She knew why she was feeling this bad, and it wasn't because it was Christmas, the most stressful time of the year for most Americans. She had actually come to enjoy Christmas shopping, it reminded her of the happy times when she was Laura Bristow, it gave her the chance to feel loved and part of a family. No, this Christmas was slightly different, and as she checked her watch she found it was four thirty in the afternoon, in two hours her sisters and their families would be arriving on a flight from Russia.

*Two hours. Two Hours. Oh my God. I can't do this. What was I thinking*

At this moment in time she was scrubbing out the kitchen cupboards, the cloth in her hands was about to fall to pieces she was scrubbing that hard. She had already cleaned the living room, the bathroom and the four guestrooms her family would be using. 

****

*Jack wont recognise this place when he gets back, he's gonna think I've gone mad**. ***

She looked down at the remainder of the cloth and sighed, talking aloud to herself

"C'mon Irina, get a grip on yourself, they are only your family, nothing to get worked up about"

She checked her watch again. 2 hours and 30 minutes till the plane landed. She looked towards the phone, thinking she could call Sydney or Jack for reassurance. Her hands suddenly started to shake uncontrollably. She couldn't believe this was happening, after all she had done in her years in intelligence, it was a meeting with her sister that she couldn't cope with. She impulsively grabbed the cordless and dialled her daughters cell phone, willing her to pick up. After 7 rings and a lot of pacing up and down the kitchen floor she gave up, and then remembered that she told her she would be at the supermarket, doing the last minute shopping for the dinner. She more than likely had her hands full with her darling grandkids and couldn't get round to answering the call. She checked her watch again, only two minutes had passed since she last looked and it was driving her ever so slightly mad. She hadn't particularly wanted to call Jack at work, he took his job as Director way too seriously, but she desperately needed to hear her only confidante's voice. She picked up the phone again and hit the memory button for his office. 

"Bristow" he answered briskly. Irina smirked; he was definitely in work mode

"Hey, its me. Can you talk?" she asked quietly, lodging the phone underneath her chin so she could make a cup of coffee with her free hands.

"Hey Sweetheart, of course I can, is something wrong?" He asked concerned, noticing the unusually high pitched ending to her sentence. 

"Its stupid really, I guess I'm just slightly worried about Yelena's reaction later, you know, I haven't seen her face to face since I was 18. I haven't been in the same room as Yelena and Katya together for over 40 years. I just don't know whether its gonna work. Jack, I don't know what to do" she replied sheepishly.

"Its going to be fine sweetheart, You've been in contact with them, its not like you are complete strangers from another. You've worked with both Katya and Sark for many years, they aren't going to create a major fuss, especially not in front of their own families." He answered. 

"But Yelena, I feel guilty about her. I left her with Mama and Papa; I didn't stay to look out for her. I'm sure she is going to blame me for everything wrong with her life, she looked up to me Jack, and she trusted me. And I broke that trust, just like I have done with everyone I have loved at some point in my coloured life. She reminded him more timidly. 

Jack was silent for a minute. "What time do they arrive at LAX? He asked. 

"Seven ten" she replied nervously, checking her watch again." 

"Right. Then I'm going to make a couple of quick phone calls, sort out procedure for tomorrow, and come home early. We can go to the airport together." He proclaimed.

"Really? You would do that? Thank you Jack. This means so much to me. I love you" She replied on a more happier note. 

"I love you too sweetheart, I'll see you soon." He spoke lovingly 

"Bye". As she hung up the phone she had a smile on her face. As long as she was in Jack's arms she felt safe. He was the only person she would allow to see her weaknesses, not that she had many of them. She still couldn't believe how lucky she was that he had given her a second chance. She had missed him so much over the 30 years they were apart, and that night in Panama reminded Irina just how much. Then Sydney disappeared and they were working together, working towards a common goal that united them again. After Sydney's wedding to Vaughn they had a long talk outside the reception. Irina had planned on watching the whole ceremony undercover, but Jack pulled some strings and she found herself smiling on the front row, it was one of the happiest days of her life. She still welcomed the flashbacks.

****

"I Sydney Ann Bristow do take thee Michael Christopher Vaughn as my lawfully wedded husband. To have and to hold from this day forward for better or for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. You are my guardian angel and I will and already do cherish every single day with you in my arms."

"I Michael Christopher Vaughn do take thee Sydney Ann Bristow as my lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold from this day forward for better or for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. You are my one and only and I will and already do cherish every single day with you in my arms."

Just thinking of the glow on her daughters face was enough to make her pangs of worry disappear. Her family was gradually pulling itself together again; they were each finding happiness after many years of despair and destruction

****

Then her thoughts wandered to a couple of hours after those eternal promises were proclaimed in front of an audience of friends. Irina had wandered outside for a breath of fresh air. She also needed some space to clear away the tears that had been threatening to fall ever since the couple kissed. She had just wiped away what she hoped was the last tear, she hated showing weakness in public for obvious reasons, when she heard a sudden movement behind her. 

"Irina. What are you doing back here? And are my eyes deceiving me or are those tear stained eyes?"

"Always the subtle guy Jack." She smiled and turned to face her husband. They never did get that divorce or annulment. Either she was in CIA custody and they couldn't let the world know she was alive by signing court papers, or she was in hiding and couldn't appear with Jack in front of a judge to declare a false marriage.

"Aren't you going to answer my question" Jack asked with a twinkle in his eye

"You know very well I have been crying Jack, though I'm glad it was you that found me, it wouldn't do for me to be seen like this in public" She replied with a mischievous grin. "I came out for some fresh air, how about you? Why are you lurking out here? I would have thought you would be sending your new son in law threatening glares!" 

Jack laughed. "Nah, his mother is busy giving him a lecture, I'm keeping well out of his way" 

Irina smiled, then felt her eyes welling up again, and quickly turned so Jack couldn't see her face. Jack had already noticed though, and touched her shoulder, prompting her to turn back slightly. 

"Hey," he murmured "what's wrong?" 

"Its just what you said. About Vaughn's mother, she's always there watching out for him. It reminds me how I was not there for Sydney, how I stupidly left the life I loved so much because my superiors wanted me out. I wrecked our relationship Jack; I loved you so much. I know you find that hard to believe but I really did. I loved both of you so much it breaks my heart to see the happy relationship you have together." 

Jack was silent throughout her speech, but then spoke up the minute she said that. "Our relationship wasn't always happy Irina, we had to learn to trust each other again, but no matter what I loved Sydney from the bottom of my heart, I didn't care whether she hated me or not, I just wanted to be around for her if she needed me. And with you Irina, not a moment goes by when I don't think about you. How much I miss you, how much I love you. I know it can never be the same, but we can at least be friends that talk in times of need if that's what you want."

"Jack, I want to be more than just friends. I want what I know you really want. I miss you and love you every day too. I want to be back in your arms. Will you take me back? I promise from here on in I will be good. I can dissolve my organisation, destroy my weaponry, however I might have to keep a few contacts, they always come in useful." She added the last part with a smirk. She looked up into Jacks usually calm eyes, finding they had started to glisten. 

Jack smiled. " I think we can try again" He replied. Their hands came together, then their heads inclined towards each other as they leant in for a kiss.


	3. Yelena

Disclaimer: Alias doesn't belong to me unfortunately, only the characters you don't recognise!

Thanks to the reviewers! Glad you like it, and I didn't put Nadia in the first chapter for a reason. You'll find out why later on. Please R &R!!

"Ladies and Gentleman, please fasten you seatbelts, we will be arriving at Los Angeles International Airport shortly", a voice boomed out over the plane's intercom.

Yelena gulped. This was it, the moment she had been waiting for since she was 10. She was going to see her big sister at last. She suddenly felt a hand slide into hers, looking to her left she saw her husband smile at her.

"It's going to be okay Yelena, nothing to worry about. She has changed since she first joined the KGB; she no longer has her organisation. She has a family now." He muttered quietly in Russian.

"She may have a family but she also has a past. A past which looks upon the SVR negatively, you of all people know that well Dmitri". She whispered back in Russian whilst she looked around for her seatbelt and fastened the clasp. Her hands shaking slightly as she fiddled with it.

"You told me they knew about your involvement Yelena, how your sisters forgive you. Like I said, you have nothing to worry about." He whispered back towards her, trying to soothe her worries in the calm and collected way he always did.

"Yes", she answered frustratingly "But they don't know about your particular involvement Dmitri, and they are less likely to forgive if they do find out. I don't want to lose you, or the children."

She looked across the aisle to her three daughters, Anja 25, Leyna 22 and Imena 20, who even though they were old enough to stay at home on their own decided to visit their famous Aunt Irina after Katya had asked them if they wanted to spend Christmas with them. Suddenly she remembered that Katya and her new husband were a few rows back from them, so she craned her neck to see how they were doing. She smiled at the scene she saw. Katya was having an argument with Russell about something to do with her grandchildren, but she couldn't quite make out what. She just loved watching Katya's facial expressions when she got like this. It reminded her of the times they had as children, arguing over toys. 

****

"'LENA, How could you! It's my doll! MINE! Not yours! You took it and dropped it in a puddle! Now I'm gonna take something you love and break it! How about that precious Blanket you carry every where with you! It's going to be mine now." Ten year old Katya lunged towards a silently crying six year old Yelena but was suddenly halted when fourteen year old Irina jumped in between them, preventing Katya from tackling her little sister to the ground. Irina made them hug each other and apologise; she was always the peacemaker in those days.

*Then Papa started drinking and mama got sick. Irina was made to join the KGB and Katya a few years later. Mama died, Papa got worse and I left home." *

"You seem deep in thought Yelena. What are you thinking about?" Her husband broke through her thoughts.

"About when I left home .The Rekovoks took me in and saved me, gave me a good education. They were the best things that ever happened to me when I was younger. I became a good teacher, but I always thought something was missing, I wasn't happy, and then two weeks before my 30th birthday you found me. You recruited me into this life. I'm thinking about how happy I am now, and how happy I was before Irina and Katya left." She replied with a sigh.

She went on "Things were so complicated back then weren't they? I had no one left, Irina and Katya had both turned terrible people and you came and found me at Serge Rekovoks, gave me a better life. About what I was saying earlier, I hope it didn't upset you. I would never blame you for my sisters hate towards me, you are the best thing that's ever happened in my life, and I could never live without you. I don't care what their reaction is to you, your job, I love you for it, no matter what." She whispered into his ear, aware that people around them might be eavesdropping.

"Yelena, I don't know whether you have ever considered this, but they probably already know my job. I doubt a former head of an intelligence organisation and the Los Angeles Director of the CIA would let just anyone stay in their house, they have probably done background checks on me. They will already know I am Deputy Director of the SVR." He replied with a smirk.

"Whatever darling. Look, we've come to a stop." Yelena stated, trying to change the topic. Sure enough, an announcement came out of the speakers above their head "Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Los Angeles, USA. The time is 19: 15 and the weather is a chilly 2 degrees Celsius"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"American Airlines flight 189 from Moscow has now arrived at Gate 5. I repeat American Airlines flight 189 from Moscow has now arrived at Gate 5."

Irina let out a small shriek at the announcement, scaring the hell out of Jack who had been busy surveying the airport, along with his two personal agents.

" Honey are you trying to give me a heart attack," he jokingly complained. She glared at him, grabbed his hand and led him towards the arrivals lounge.

She started observing the people filing out of the corridor, hoping Katya would come out first because she didn't think she would recognise the others. She was in luck, her little sister was one of the first passengers through, and ran straight into Irina's arms when she spotted her. 

"Irina! It's so good to see you again! It's been a long year! Happy Christmas! Meet Russell!" She spoke without taking a breath. Irina just laughed and hugged her straight back.

"I missed you too Katya. Looks like you made a good catch with Russell!" she retorted with a happy grin plastered all over her face.

The four of them laughed, Katya replying "I can't believe you just said that in front of Jack!"

"Don't worry sweetie, he knows how you feel about him" Irina proclaimed with a grin. "Its nice to meet you Russell, I've heard so many good things about you, though I doubt you can say the same thing about me!"

Russell laughed, then proceeded to kiss Irina's proffered hand, before shaking Jack's. "It's not all bad! Its nice to meet both of you." Irina smirked and then caught a glance of a familiar figure standing quietly a few metres behind Russell. 

"Yelena?" Tears started to form in her eyes as she looked directly at her sister, trying to comprehend whether it was really her.

*It has to be, but she looks so different, so grown up*

"Irina" her sister replied just as quietly, "Is it really you?"

She choked on her last few words, as her face had started to mirror her sisters and tears were rolling slowly down her cheeks. Then all of a sudden Irina opened up her arms and Yelena dashed into them. They hugged each other so tight that they started to have trouble breathing.

"I missed you so much baby", Irina murmured into her younger sisters hair.

"I missed you too 'Rina, I have prayed for you every day since I was 10, and in every prayer I asked God to one day return you to me. I can't believe it has finally happened, it's been so long." She murmured back.

"I'm so sorry baby. I didn't want to leave you, but I had to, you know that right? I wouldn't have left if I didn't have to" Irina stressed quickly, putting her sister at arms length so she could get a better look at her.

"I know, but it was so hard. You left and Mama got bedridden. Katya left me looking after her when I was 14, It was awful sister, just awful. Papa spent all day at the pub or asleep, I left two years later when Mama died, I couldn't stay there on my own anymore, and I couldn't cope with him." She started to cry slightly at the memory, causing Irina to bring her closer again so she could wipe away her tears.

"I know baby. I'm sorry, we are both very sorry that we left you in that situation, I'm so sorry I left you with such an uncertain future. What happened when you left, where did you go? I never heard much about those few years of your life." Irina asked her sister gently.

"I went into hiding with some friends. I knew that by doing that you would have no way of contacting me to see how I was, but I had to do it to get away, it was my only chance. I worried about you everyday. I didn't know whether you were still alive, all Papa had told me was that you and Katya went to work for the KGB. All I knew about them at the time was that they were bad, and that officers easily died." Yelena choked on tears with the last sentence, remembering how frightened she had been.

Irina groaned, and steadied her sister with her strong arms, she looked like she was going to faint. "I'm so sorry I couldn't tell you how I was 'Lena, I wanted to but it wasn't allowed. But know this, Katya and I worried about you all the time. We prayed for your safety, we so desperately wanted to protect you from Papa but we couldn't, there was nothing we could do. What did you do in hiding? It was a few years before you joined the SVR wasn't it?"

Yelena nodded and went on to reply in whisper. "I was a teacher. I taught mathematics at a local school, under the name Yelena Rekovok so the KGB couldn't find me too. The Rekovoks were good people. They hated the KGB; they were so relieved when the Soviet Union fell. They were well-educated people and knew higher up's in the SVR. Apparently my whereabouts weren't unknown to them, so in '91 they recruited me." She glanced around quickly to check no one was listening. " It was when I worked for them I found the truth out about you Irina. About how you had been spying in America, how you and Katya were still thought to be alive"

*I was so happy, yet so sad at the same time. My two heroes, they were the bad people*

Irina nodded at this last sentence. "I'm sorry you had to find out like that, you know I taught as well?"

Yelena frowned. "No, when?"

" Here in America, it was my cover story. I was an English student and then became a Professor of English at UCLA. Sydney is actually qualified to be one as well." Irina explained.

"Sydney. Your daughter. Another aspect of your life in America. When do I get to meet this famous agent I have heard so much about? I trust she isn't quite like you, she wouldn't work for the CIA otherwise. Is she much like her father?" Yelena asked, her eyes swivelling over towards Jack, who was standing awkwardly with the rest of the family a few feet away. They had moved so Irina could greet her long estranged sister more privately.

Irina laughed. "She is as stubborn as me and looks like me, but yes, she has many attributes of her father. Let me introduce you to Jack, and I want to meet your beautiful family." She grabbed her sister's hand and led her towards Jack.

" Jack, this is Yelena, Yelena this is the one guy in the world mad enough to love me for who I am." 

They all laughed, "Its nice to meet you Jack, I have heard much about you from Katya, though I didn't know how much of it was true. It will be nice to find out what you are really like in person." Yelena proclaimed almost shyly, yet with a hint of laughter in her voice.

"Hey! Don't be like that! I wasn't that bad Jack, I promise. Only a few white lies, just to make you seem more interesting, I never dreamed you would actually ever meet." Katya finished her sentence and then glared at her sister, putting a grin on both Jack and Yelena's faces.

"Its nice to meet you too Yelena. I hope we will get on regardless of whatever your devious sister has said about me." Jack answered, laughing whilst kissing her proffered hand.

"Now, if you'll allow me, let me make some introductions. Irina, Jack, this is my husband Dmitri. Dmitri, my eldest sister and her long suffering husband." Dmitri kissed Irina's and shaked Jack's hand.

"It's nice to meet you both. Thank you for inviting us to spend Christmas at your home" He replied.

Irina nodded and said "It's nice to meet you too, I do hope we will manage to keep our differences in opinion away from conversation for the next week. I want everybody to enjoy this holiday."

"I'm sure that can be arranged. I'm assuming you know of my job?" Dmitri asked.

Irina and Jack both nodded, Jack replying "We are well aware of your activities, and you will know of my position in the Agency so I would like to stress that I have arranged adequate protection to make sure we aren't a primary target." 

"That is good to know, thank you. I'll let my wife carry on the introductions if that's ok with everybody." He replied.

Yelena took over the conversation again, and pulled towards her a tall girl, with long brown wavy hair and an extremely slim body. Speaking in both Russian and English she said, "This is my eldest, Anja. She is a model for a sports company. 

"Hello. Its nice to meet you" she replied in Russian.

"Its nice to meet you too, Anja. You are beautiful just like your mother" Her Aunt Irina replied in the same language. Jack just stood beside Irina, smiling and nodding.

Next, a tall blonde stepped forward, declaring in English "Hello. I'm Leyna; I work in International Law, so unlike my sisters I speak English well. It is a pleasure to finally meet you after hearing tales of you throughout my life. Thank you for inviting us to stay."

"Its a pleasure Leyna, I'm sure you make a very good lawyer", Irina replied with a smile.

"And this is my youngest baby, Imena," Yelena proclaimed putting her arm around a shorter brunette.

"Hello" Imena replied with a shy smile. "Imena works with computers, doing analysis. She's very bright"; Her mother carried on proudly. "All my babies are". 

"Of that I'm sure sister dear. As are all of mine and Katya's, but I'm pretty sure you will have heard of their work, it's not very secret in our world unfortunately." Irina replied with a smile.

"Let us move towards the car, we can carry on our conversation in the stretch limo that Jack so kindly hired. He gets kind of nervous in airports on busy holidays, too many criminals escaping the country in crowds and thousands of whining kids I believe."

"That's not true Irina, you know I like kids and it's my job to keep LA safe, hence I know the truth about criminal behaviour." He replied with a quick scowl.

"Sorry sweetheart, lets get you away from thinking about work and concentrating on relaxing for once." She replied with a grin, giving her sisters an exasperated look.

The visitors gathered their luggage from the carousel and headed towards the main entrance, ready to start their Christmas holidays at last.


	4. Bonjour

Disclaimer: I don't own Alias, if I did I would be shouting it from the rooftops. I however do own the characters you don't recognise.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you like the story! Vaughnbabe, I did email you when I updated, promise! I didn't really get to grips with this chapter, so it turned into a filler, however I do know where the plot is going now- I figured it out in philosophy! Kate (drkate2@hotmail.com) :)

"Mommy? Mommy? Are they ready yet?" Sydney glanced down towards her youngest daughter and sighed. "Sweetie, the cookies aren't going to be ready for a while yet, why don't you go and find something to do?" 

"Like what?" Georgia replied, getting more impatient by the minute. "Are you sure they will be ready for bedtime? Santa might not give me any presents if I don't put them out with some milk and carrots for Rudolph! Mommy, I don't want to make Santa mad."

"They will be ready an hour before bedtime, OK? Santa won't get mad, don't worry. Go and see if Daddy needs any help getting the house ready for your grandmother's arrival. She will be here in the next half-hour, so you should wash your face and hands too. You know how she likes you to look clean." Sydney finished her sentence and then checked her watch. 8:00. She still couldn't figure out why everybody had left it till the last possible moment to arrive in LA.

Her mother's family would have arrived an hour ago, Sark excluded as he was already in LA on business and had flown his family in that morning for a full day of sightseeing before taking them to Irina's. Sydney thought she had heard her mother say that they were arriving at around 8:30, therefore they were going to be having a late dinner.

Ah yes, Sydney remembered now, her father had complained he would be starving and couldn't Sark just eat out. Irina had just rolled her eyes and told him to be nice, that Sark wants to do something fun for his family and that it wouldn't matter if they were a little late eating. Sydney had then taken the opportunity to remind him that he sometimes doesn't finish work till ten and ends up eating even later. Her father didn't bother to reply, he just gave her a quick scowl causing both Irina and Sydney to burst out laughing, he really couldn't take losing arguments, especially when it was with one of his girls.

Vaughn's family on the other hand was driving in across country from Florida, where his mother now lived. His aunt and his sister's family had been staying there for the past week, and Sydney was sure that Celia had found it a good time to back stab Irina in front of avid listeners. She didn't care though, as long as it wasn't brought up in front of Georgia, Josh and Claudia it didn't bother her. She had grown to love her mother again, but she fully understood that Irina had caused some people too much pain for them to take her lightly.

"Aaargh, Daddy stop it! It tickles too much!" her daughters squealing suddenly broke into her thoughts and the next minute Georgia came running into the kitchen followed closely by laughing Vaughn.

"I told you I would get you to wash somehow, I'll stop if you promise to go and clean up" Vaughn proclaimed with a grin.

"But Daddy, Claudia is using the bathroom for her make up and she gets mad at me if I ask her to get out" She answered with a pout. 

"Well give a message to your sister for me. Tell her to stop putting her make up on or she cant go to that concert she's been bugging us about. That should get her out." Vaughn grinned down at his youngest daughter "OK?" 

"OK Daddy" Georgia shrieked before running back out of the door. Vaughn watched her retreat and then looked over at Sydney who was grinning madly.

"Hey, she been winding you up too?" She asked, moving over towards the dishwasher to unload the plates they had been using for dinner.

"Yeah, all thanks to you" He retorted, rolling his eyes in mock exasperation. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" She replied with a frown, gently placing the plates into the overhead pine cupboards that she had loved when she first viewed the house. Vaughn still couldn't believe that was one of her main reasons for wanting to buy it.

"She told me it was you who sent her after me." Vaughn stated, moving behind his wife, before wrapping his arms around her waist. "I'll have to get you back for that somehow"

"Yeah yeah, you know I can overpower you with the flick of a hand, your words don't scare me in the slightest. Sydney finished her sentence and turned around to kiss Vaughn on the lips. "Maybe in another life sweetie" She added with a laugh. 

Vaughn pouted before replying" Whatever, lets just deal with this life at the moment OK? In less than 24 hours my family is going to be spending Christmas with yours, did you call the National Guard before you left work to warn them?"

"Ha Ha. Mom, Katya and Sark have promised to behave, and you told me your mother had, and besides the National Guard weren't interested so I warned the FBI instead." She replied back with a smirk. 

Suddenly the doorbell rang so they moved through the living room towards the front door, only to find Claudia had opened it and was already fielding her Grandmere's persistent questions.

"Ah, ma petite Claudia, how are you my dear?" She shrieked, pulling her into a big hug and giving little room for her to breathe. 

"I'm not so small now Grandmere, I'm eleven now" She replied quickly after she had pulled back slightly from Celia.

"Of course you are my dear, did you get the present I sent over?" her grandmother asked whilst carefully surveying her tall, brunette granddaughter, proud of how she had grown so beautiful. *Must be her French genes, everybody in my family is beautiful, and she certainly got her politeness from me. I doubt Sydney would be so nice if it wasn't for that father of hers having some decency. She definitely didn't get it from that mother of hers*

"Yes Grandmere, I called you and thanked you remember?" Claudia reminded her, slightly annoyed as it had only been a month ago and she had spent over an hour on the phone to her talking about her favourite band, of which her present had been an album.

"Ah yes, I recall that now. Where is your father? Is he not going to help me with this luggage like a gentleman?" She asked, slightly miffed her beloved son had not yet been to greet her

"I'm right here maman" Vaughn called out quickly in French "I hope your journey was ok"

"It was fine thank you dear, now are you going to come and give you maman a hug and help with her luggage or are you just going to stand there doing nothing?" She rattled off in rapid French, as it was normal for them to converse in French with each other.

Vaughn immediately headed to the door, but not before asking his wife to avoid bursting out in laughter, she seemed pretty close to exploding after his mother had scolded him. Sydney just shrugged and ran into the next room to calm down slightly, on the pretence that she had to find her car keys to move their sedan's further up the drive so Marie could park the car more safely.

When she got back to the doorway she found that both Celia and Stephanie, who had jumped out of the car at the bottom of the drive, had finished hugging Vaughn and Claudia and had started on Josh and Georgia who had just made an appearance. A few minutes later, Marie and her kids had joined in with the hugging and Sydney was feeling slightly better about the dinner the next day, everyone seemed happy to see each other so far and Celia hadn't started cursing anyone yet. She automatically checked her watch to see how long it was until Christmas dinner. It was 8:30, and she suddenly realised that her mother would be sitting down for dinner with her two sister's for the first time in over 40 years, Along with the Directors of two rival intelligence agencies, a former assassin of intelligence organisation Directors and most of their families. Sydney gulped. *Oh God *


	5. Sark's arrival

Disclaimer: I don't own Alias but you already know that. If I did I would probably get a lot of you writing for me! The stories on here are fantastic!

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, its so nice to know people are reading the story and liking it. I checked my email halfway through a particularly bad day at school (Don't you just hate exams?) and your reviews cheered me up instantly and I got working on this chapter straight away! I don't know whether this chapter is as well written as the others, I wrote most of the angry part a few mins ago after having difficult customers all day, let some of the tension out! Anyway, please continue to read and review, I would really appreciate it. Kate J 

Oh, and conversations between Mariana and her kids, her husband and her mother in law are all Italian whereas all conversation between Dmitri and Yelena is in Russian 

BEEP BEEP BEEEEP. It was the evening rush hour in Los Angeles and the roads were complete chaos as usual, even more busy in fact because it was Christmas Eve and everybody was doing their last minute errands before the shops shut for the holiday weekend.

Sark tapped his steering wheel impatiently, silently cursing himself for leaving it too late to drive across town. He looked across at the passenger seat to see his wife looking slightly pale, she had never been to LA before and even though she was used to city life in Italy, she wasn't used to this. They had already had a couple of near run in's with other cars and Sark's driving wasn't exactly normal, he preferred speeding whenever possible.

No point in wasting time .

He looked into the back and found both of the kids napping, it had been a long, exciting day for them and they were so tired they could easily sleep through the noise. Suddenly the traffic started moving and Sark hit the accelerator once more, jolting his wife slightly forward, much to her annoyance.

" Julian! Must you do that, it doesn't matter if we arrive late, I just want us to arrive in one piece" She complained in Italian, quickly readjusting the seatbelt that was now digging into her.

"Sweetheart, You drive like this too, don't try to deny it, I've seen you in action often enough" He replied, raising his eyebrows as if to emphasise his point.

"Yes, but we are on vacation now, I want to be able to relax, not worry about whether we are going to get into an accident. Please, can we drive more carefully?" She replied with puppy dog eyes that she knew immediately melted her husband's heart, no matter what mood he was in.

It worked, and Sark slowed down slightly, realising they wouldn't be that late anyway. Mariana spoke up again "How far away is it your aunt lives?" 

"About twenty minutes away, we should get there at twenty to if the traffic doesn't get any more worse" He replied, with a glance at the clock on his dashboard.

"Great, I don't know how much more of this I can take. I don't suppose you can run through the names of the people we will be staying with tonight could you? I think I zoned out when you told me last time" She replied with a sheepish grin.

Sark glared back at her, he knew very few people who would dare to insult him once in a sentence, never mind twice. "Oh, really? Well I guess I can tell you once more, but after that you're on your own if you forget a name. OK? He asked.

"Sure, whatever darling. Proceed" She replied with a wry grin.

"OK, well it's My Aunt Irina's house. She lives with my Uncle Jack" Sark takes a moment to grimace, unnoticed by Mariana, he still couldn't believe he was related to that man.

"Mom and Russell are going to be there, along with Mom and Irina's youngest sister, my Aunt Yelena. Her husband is Dmitri and they have three daughters, Anja, Leyna and Imena. Everybody else is staying at my cousins across town." He finished his sentence and realised he was coming up to his turnoff, quickly changing lanes without much indication, much to the annoyance of drivers around him.

When he was safely on his target road he started to relax a little bit, trying to get into the holiday mood. He started flipping channels on the radio, coming across some Christmas songs that he had missed in Italy, and he started to sing along, much to Mariana's amusement as he seemed to be tone deaf. His singing woke up James and Christina and they started to complain.

"Papa, please stop singing, its embarrassing, what if people can hear you" Eight year old Christina proclaimed, putting her fingers in her ears.

Four-year-old James copied his big sister's actions, with a big grin on his face, he enjoyed these games. Sark just laughed, and started to sing louder and even more badly. In minutes they were all laughing so hard they were close to tears, barely noticing they had pulled onto Irina's street.

The car suddenly got quiet when Sark approached the driveway. James started to whimper slightly, he was always nervous meeting new people and this encounter was likely to be very overwhelming for him.

Christina couldn't stop fiddling with her toys beside her, she much unlike James was very excited because she loved meeting family and could barely contain herself. I hope there is someone to play with, I can show them my new doll Daddy bought for me! 

Mariana was nervous, she had never met Sark's family apart from his mother and stepfather, and she didn't know much about the people they were to stay with. Well apart from his Aunt Irina of course, in her profession everybody knew about Irina Derevko, but she wasn't aware that Sark was related to her until his mother had mentioned it a few weeks ago when Mariana had questioned her name. She had no idea what everybody else did for a living, and she wasn't so sure she wanted to ask.

Sark, on the other hand wasn't nervous at all, at least that's what he tried to convince himself. He had recently discovered that his Uncle Dmitri was Deputy Director of the SVR, and he didn't know whether it would do well for the two of them to meet. After all, Sark had assassinated several leaders back in his days working for Irina and his Uncle was more than likely to know this, as well as about the many crimes he had committed on Russian soil. 

Sark pulled the car to a stop, and stepped out of the door. He greeted the CIA agent standing at the door and opened up the back driver's side door, picking up James from his car seat. A couple of minutes later they were all out of the car, and alerted to their presence by the agent, Irina and Jack came to the door.

" Julian! You made it" Irina shouted.

"Of course I did! Sorry we are late; the traffic was pretty bad, Happy Christmas!" he replied to his aunt, kissing her on both cheeks and giving her a quick hug.

He turned to shake Jack's hand, "Thanks for inviting us, it was very kind of you" he added to his uncle, ever so slightly nervous that he took a small step back from him. 

"Don't be silly Julian, of course we invited you, you're family aren't you?" Irina retorted, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"That hasn't always been a good thing has it?" He replied with a grin. 

"Well no, but it counts at the moment, its Christmas. Now are you going to introduce us to these beautiful people or are we going to have to become psychic?" She asked back with a grin to mirror Sark's.

"Sure" He replied "Sorry. This is Mariana, my wife, and these two are James and Christina. Mariana, kids, this is my Aunt Irina and Uncle Jack."

Hello's were exchanged quickly as the next minute Katya came running out of the house and pulled her son into her arms "Baby! You're here! Where have you been, I was missing you. Happy Christmas!

He barely managed to squeeze out " Hey Mom, Sorry we're late, I missed you too" before she had moved onto hugging Mariana and the kids, Mariana's face instantly lighting up. Finally! Someone I know! 

"Mariana, you look beautiful as usual", her mother in law exclaimed in Italian, "And my grandkids are still the most adorable things in the world I see".

Irina broke into the reunion at that moment "Guys, I hate to break this up but the dinner is going to go cold, can we go inside before Jack's stomach rumbling wakes up the neighbours?"

Everybody laughed and moved towards the dining room, looking forward to the food that awaited them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dmitri glanced around the large dining room, taking in all the exquisite detail that Irina had taken so much time over creating. Looking to the mantelpiece he came across three picture frames. One was of Irina and Jack, on what he assumed was their wedding day, he decided it must be the second time, when they renewed their vows, as they didn't look young enough to be twenty. They however did look blissfully happy, as they did in the next picture frame he came across. This one had another couple in it though, and as far as he could make out from his position, three young kids. Could this be the daughter? Sydney? The third picture was of three young girls, the identity of all he knew immediately. For it was his wife with her two older sisters, Yelena must have been about 5 in that picture. She looked so happy in that environment; they were eating ice cream in a Moscow park as far as he could tell. Suddenly new voices broke through his thoughts and he turned his attention towards the door, immediately cursing the sight in front of him, for a familiar looking blond haired guy had just walked in, talking animatedly with Katya.

No. It can't be, Yelena would have said something. It can't be him, he wouldn't get past the guards Jack has, he is an enemy of the CIA. It can't be Julian Sark; there's no way. 

Lena, Dmitri, girls. Please allow me to introduce my son Julian, his wife Mariana and their kids, Christina and James.

Dmitri felt sick, sick and confused.

No. What is happening here? I don't get it. Sark… Sark is her son? He's my nephew? That son of a bitch is related to me? Hang on a sec, does he know who I am? Surely he must, why on earth didn't I think to bring any back up? I know Jack said he had backup, but he has just welcomed a terrorist into his home. Dammit 

He glanced angrily over at his wife, not noticing how confused she looked at the situation herself. All he could think was

Why the hell didn't she tell me? I cant be in the same vicinity as this…this man… surely she knows that? I could lose my job; I can't be seen socialising with a terrorist, especially one who is on the SVR's most wanted list. What the hell was she thinking not telling me?"

Dmitri was getting so furious he didn't realise Katya was trying to get his attention.

"Dmitri? Dmitri? Is anyone there?" She asked loudly, waving her hand in front of his face.

"Sorry Katya, I um just realised I had forgotten to do something important. It's nice to meet you Julian, and Mariana is it? He replied, quickly making up a lie. "Can I just talk to you a minute Lena?" He directed his words towards his wife as calmly as he could, trying to avoid letting his hostility towards the whole situation show.

"Sure sweetheart, we'll be back to the table in a minute guys, ok?" She said with a slight frown. What on earth did he forget that's so important that he takes me away from my family reunion. Honestly, men! 

A few minutes later they were standing in what Yelena assumed to be the den, and she started to notice her husband's demeanour change. "D, What's wrong? You seem really tense, what did you forget?" she asked curiously yet with a hint of fear, it wasn't like him to get like this.

"Dammit Lena, I didn't forget anything, except perhaps my brain. I should have known a Derevko wouldn't give me the whole story" He replied angrily.

"What the hell exactly do you mean by that? What are you blaming me for? " She angrily replied back, confused at her husband.

" Julian Sark, You didn't tell me that Sark would be here. Dammit Lena, why the hell didn't you tell me. I could lose my job; _we_ could lose our jobs if we are known to be socialising with that man. What were you thinking, that I would just go along with it when we met each other?" He retorted, and started to pace the length of the den.

"This is about Sark? I didn't know that he was Katya's son! I found out the minute you did, and that was when he walked into the room with his mother. Yes, I knew Katya had a son called Julian, but so did _you_. I assumed his second name would be Derevko, she never told me of his father, said he was deceased and that he didn't want to know of him. Obviously Katya had a fling with Andrian Lazarey, but I'm not going to go into that, I don't really care. All I want Dmitri is to spend a Christmas with my whole family, and I'd prefer if you didn't try to wreck it." She replied with her hands on her his, glaring annoyed at her husband.

He had calmed down slightly since hearing her first sentence, so the next words he spoke were much quieter and logical "But we could lose our jobs Lena. Do you want that too?"

Tears started to roll quickly down her face. She replied in a whisper "No, but I don't want to leave D, please don't make me leave. Can't we just stay and avoid speaking with him for the next week? Please Dmitri, please?"

"Oh sweetheart, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, I should have thought it out a little bit more before I confronted you. Of course we can stay, I don't want you to have to separate from your sisters again, its just I don't know whether I can cope being in the same house as that man. We can work something out though, I know we can. I'm going to have a word with Jack after dinner, he can explain to me why he allowed Sark into the house, he must have good reason, and maybe we can keep this from the Director and keep our jobs." He had taken his wife into his arms by this point and her tears were coming to a stop. They just stood there, wrapped around each other until Yelena realised dinner would be getting cold and Irina would be getting mad. " Cmon D, we better go eat." They walked off arm in arm towards the dining room, each wondering about what else they were going to have to confront during their weeklong stay.


	6. Xmas Eve

Disclaimer: I don't own Alias, only the characters here depicted which you don't recognise from the show, JJ Abrams is the lucky guy that does however own it.

A/N Thanks much for your reviews- I never get bored of them Ekai, so keep on writing them! Ren 201, Its an honour to be on your favourite stories list, thank you! To all those wondering when the hell the dinner is going to happen, soon I promise! Next couple of chapters I think will be Christmas morning, where they will all end up at the house. It depends really! This chapter is dedicated to those demanding more S/V, you know who you are! Kate

Chapter 6- Xmas Eve

Sydney looked across the darkened room, making out the small shape of her daughter under the duvet, which was rising up and down gently with each breath she took. She sighed, it hadn't been easy getting Georgia to bed, she had been full of questions about Santa and ended up being too excited to sleep. A mug of warm milk seemed to have done the trick though, and now she was entering a deep slumber. She gently closed her door, and walked back down the hallway, bumping into Josh and Claudia on the way to their own rooms.

"Hey guys" she whispered quietly so as not to wake Georgia, "have you both washed and done your teeth". Josh nodded tiredly and gave his mother a quick hug before going into his room and closing the door.

He had reached that age where he didn't want to be tucked in anymore, he said it was because they woke him when he was drifting off. His parents however knew he had a habit of turning on his torch to read comic books for an hour before he fell asleep. Sometimes one of them would walk in to wake him in the morning and find his head on the latest magazine.

Claudia on the other hand preferred to listen to her Walkman for an hour, her parents constantly teased her about singing in her sleep. Instead of walking into her room she started pleading with her mother for more batteries, she had a habit of running out and then forgetting about it until bedtime the next night.

" Mom, I really really need a couple of batteries, you know I cant get to sleep without listening to my music first" she pleaded.

" But I don't have any sweetheart, I used the last ones for the fake Christmas tree in the kitchen" She replied with a shrug.

"Aww. Do you think Dad might have some?" She inquired, hopping from one foot to the other.

" He might. I'll tell you what, I'll go and ask him while you settle into bed, OK?" She answered, raising her eyebrows in anticipation of a reply.

"Ok Mom. Goodnight, and I love you." She hugged her mother and headed into her bedroom, whilst Sydney walked into the living room. Marie had just sent Pierre and John into the room she would be sharing with them, and was now quietly talking to her mother, brother and aunt about what happened last Christmas in France.

Vaughn looked around and saw his wife heading towards them. "Hey sweetheart, did you manage to get her to sleep yet?" he inquired with a slight grin, his youngest never failed to amuse him.

"Finally." She sighed. "The milk definitely worked. Claudia's desperate for some batteries, do you have any spare?"

Vaughn raised his eyebrows and sighed, "Why is it she always forgets? You were out shopping earlier weren't you? You could have got her some if she had bothered to ask. I'll just go and check."

He walked through into the kitchen and started rifling to cupboards similar to the ones Sydney had been using earlier. He came across a pack of eight AA batteries, perfect for getting her through the next month. He walked back towards the living room, where Marie was busy telling Sydney about what Pierre had got his brother for Christmas last year, the Barbie story as they liked to call it never failed to gain a few laughs.

It seemed Pierre had overheard John when he was telling friends how he wanted a 'Barbie girl'. He went out and bought him a Barbie doll as a present, thinking that's what he had been talking about. The look on John's face had been priceless when he took off the wrapping!

"Bingo. I'll give her these eight and we can get some more next week" He reported to his wife.

"Great, can you feed the fish as well? I kind of forgot!" She replied sheepishly.

"What am I? Your slave?" He asked with a mock glare.

"No, you're the one who agreed to get the fish, I said it was a bad idea and that no one would look after them, but Georgia got to you and you agreed. Now go feed the fish." She answered with her know it all smile that Vaughn couldn't disagree with for the life of him.

"Fine, fine. But if Nemo and Elmo die because you refused to help look after them, then I'm gonna give the job of explaining their death to Georgia to you." He replied back, a hint of sweet revenge in his voice.

"Whatever darling, Now go and let me hear stories of you as a child from your mom." She requested.

Vaughn gave another glare towards his family before heading out of the room. Syd watched his departure and then eagerly turned to Celia and Stephanie for tales she could get back at Vaughn with.

A few hours later Vaughn crept into his bedroom, assuming Syd would be fast asleep. He had just been filling up the kids' stockings and placing the remaining presents from 'Santa' under the tree, he had eaten up the cookie and gulped down the milk quickly. He had decided to place the carrots back into the fridge, knowing Georgia wouldn't notice the number of carrots in the fridge had grown overnight. She would however had noticed the cookie, seeing as she had eaten what was left of them.

He grinned to himself as he started yanking at his already loosened tie, part of the suit he had been wearing to work all day.

Why didn't I choose a job that gave me Christmas holidays? I must be mad .

He slung his trousers and shirt onto the dresser, he couldn't be bothered to put them in the laundry, all he wanted to do was collapse onto his bed, take Syd into his arms and fall asleep.

The shirt however missed the dresser and fell into the nearby wastepaper basket "Damn" he muttered "What the hell is wrong with my aim?"

Suddenly a voice came out of the darkness "I don't know, but you sure need to get some more practice in at the range. That was pathetic".

"Syd? You're awake? He asked startled, pulling back the duvet on his side of the bed and climbing into the warmth.

"Well I don't see anyone else talking, So I guess I am." She replied monotonously.

"Ha Ha, very funny." Vaughn answered sarcastically. "I thought you would be fast asleep by now" He stated, wrapping his arms around his beautiful wife.

"I couldn't sleep. Everytime I tried falling asleep I would get these images flying across my mind. I kinda freaked" she mumbled ashamedly, tears forming in her eyes.

"Hey, its ok" Vaughn replied, "What… what were they of?"

" I don't know how to explain it but I have this really bad feeling about tomorrow… something is going to happen… I just know it… and I don't like it." She answered timidly. "Vaughn, I'm scared. Are you sure we should be putting the kids through tomorrow?"

" Syd, I'm sure it's going to be fine, it's just the tiredness talking. You need some sleep, you are way too stressed to think straight at the moment, the family is going to get along fine, trust me." He replied.

"But what if they don't? I mean, it would affect the kids for the rest of their life. See, these dreams I've been having, some of them have been flashbacks to when I was young, when I had Christmas with Mom and Dad and Dad's family.

"I was 5, and really excited that year because Dad had promised me a pink pony for Christmas. I had been sent upstairs to do my teeth the night before Christmas Eve, but I had forgotten something, It was my teddy bear, so I went back downstairs to get it. I went quietly so my parents wouldn't hear me, but it wouldn't have mattered if I walked normally because when I reached the kitchen door my parents were in the middle of an argument. It seemed my mother had answered a phone call from Dad's mom and had invited her, her second husband, Dad's sister and Dad's stepbrother along with their families along for supper on Christmas day. Dad was furious, she hadn't asked him and he disliked his family so much he kept as well away from them as he could. He never got along with his stepdad or his stepbrother, his sister did though, and he got fed up being the one left out of all family decisions. He left home for university as soon as he could and rarely went back. Anyway, my grandmother called up out of the blue, wanting to reconnect apparently. For the rest of my life I will remember the look on Dad's face. He looked so lost and betrayed. I was so scared for him.

Christmas day came; I got my pony and waited anxiously for their arrival in the evening. To cut a long story short, they came, they argued really badly, and I got sent to my room, but not before hearing Dad tell his mother that he never ever wanted to see her face again. She reciprocated with the words 'Thank God, I have never been so embarrassed by anyone in my life, I should never have considered contacting you, I assumed you would have improved, but I was obviously very wrong. You will never make a good son like Steven, and I doubt you make a good family man either." My father was so mad by this point he screamed "Get Out and never come near me, my wife or my daughter again, you hear?"

A year later, I was told I would never see my mother again, these traumatic memories came back to haunt me and all I could think of was that Dad was the only person I had left in the world. I would never have a loving family for the rest of my life."

She finished recounting this tale with tears in her eyes. " Vaughn, this is why I wanted the family together in the first place, so the kids could see they have a family that will be around them if for whatever reason we cant be. But I cant help thinking everything will go drastically wrong, what if Yelena and Dmitri stir up arguments with Mom, Dad and Katya? What if Sark doesn't behave and Mom, Katya, Sark and I fall out? What if Celia can't hold in her hate for Mom and she falls out with us? I don't want the kids to think their family isn't loving Vaughn, please help me, please. She buries her head in his shoulder, her tears falling freely now.

Vaughn is slightly shocked at this outburst and puts his hand over her head, gently stroking her hair, trying desperately to say something to calm his suddenly hysterical wife down

"Sweetie, I had no idea you felt like this. Why didn't you tell me before? There is nothing to worry about, and if there is I promise to sort it. So will your parents, they feel so guilty that they couldn't give you the family you wanted that I'm sure they will make it up for the kids. We are not going to go anywhere anyway, ya hear? We dont do lots of fieldwork anymore, we should be fine, and even if we aren't, the kids have still got each other, and I'm sure if something did happen the CIA would keep them together. OK?" He glanced down at Syd, who lifted her head from his shoulder and nodded.

"Yep. I'll try to keep it together, I know you wouldn't say that unless you meant it, that's why I love you so much. Well for that and your ability to get me out of sticky situations. She smirked at her last sentence

"Hey! Is that the only reason? You didn't mention my personality, or my hockey skills, that's not fair!" He mocked

"Well maybe them too. But lets not forget you only love me because you are scared of what my parents might do to you if you don't" She replied, her tears replaced by a grin on her face.

"Yeah, but I think also because you are the CIA's top field agent and I can brag that you chose me as a husband to colleagues who go around thinking they are the best at everything." He replied, tilting his head to make it look like he was thinking hard. "Yep, that's definitely it!"

Sydney pulled up her pillow and pelted him with it, making him pin her down. "I wouldn't carry on doing that if I were you, the kids will get upset if you beat Santa up."

"Fine, whatever" she replied, adding "I love you" before readjusting her pillow and laying her head onto it.

"And I love you too" Vaughn replied, putting his arms around Sydney again and they slowly fell into six hours of dreamless sleep.


	7. And so it begins

Disclaimer: JJ Abrams owns alias, not me unfortunately.

A/N. He He. Bet you werent expecting me to update so fast, I just spent the last three hours writing it- Im in shock myself! Thank you so much for your reviews, keep them coming. The end of this chapter leads straight onto the dinner and its going to take me a while to write that, I have to create lots of chaos! So please be patient! Enjoy! Kate

Chapter 7- Christmas Morning- And so it begins...

"MOMMY, ITS CHRISTMAS!" Sydney jolted out of her sleep as her daughter yelled down her ear. Vaughn woke up beside her as quickly, and found Georgia was leaning over towards his ear.

"Sweetie! Don't do that! " Sydney complained, rubbing her ear slightly "You nearly gave me a heart attack"

"Sorry Mommy but its Christmas" She shrieked back, now bouncing on her parents bed, "And guess what?"

"What is it George?" Vaughn answered with a yawn

"Santa came! He brought presents for me! Do you want to see my stocking?" Without waiting for an answer she pulled her stocking up from the floor where she had discarded it when she came in the room, and proceeded to empty its contents onto her parents.

"Ow! George!" Vaughn replied after a video hit him hard in the stomach, "Do you think you could move that to the end of the bed? Mommy and I could do without being hurt today"

Georgia giggled at this "Sorry Daddy, Can I go open my other presents now? Please? Pretty please?"

"Not just yet sweetheart, wait until breakfast ok? When everyone's together, we can open them at the same time.

" 'K. When's breakfast" She inquired, looking straight into her fathers eyes pleadingly.

Vaughn looked over to his bedside clock; it read 5:30. "In a couple of hours, you woke up too early. How about we go and put the video you just threw at me on? That should give you something to do, and I'll tell you what, if you're good and give us a bit of peace you can have some chocolate before breakfast, OK?"

"Really?" she squealed excitedly, looking to her mother for confirmation.

"Yes, really. Now let Daddy put that video on and give us an hour, and we'll come and join you." Syd replied with a grin, happy to see her daughter so excited.

Georgia pulled her father out of bed and gave him just enough time to put a robe on over his blue boxers before leading him out of the room.

2 hours later…. " Daddy! Mommy! Wake up! Grandmere Celia says it's breakfast time now, its time to open presents".

Syd opened her eye blearily and sighed, "OK sweetie, Daddy and I just need a couple of minutes and we'll be there. Why don't you ask Grandmere to help you set the table?". Georgia ran out of the room, screaming that they would be there in a couple of minutes to anyone that was listening.

Syd looked over to Vaughn and grinned, "Happy Christmas Sweetie".

Vaughn smiled back, looking adoringly into her eyes, " Happy Christmas to you too!" He leaned over and kissed Syd on the lips. "Cmon, we better get to the kitchen before George winds up my mother, we need her to be in a good mood today remember?"

They both dragged themselves out of bed and pulled their robes on before heading down towards the kitchen and the chaos that awaited them….

Meanwhile, over at Irina and Jack's Mansion…

BEEP BEEP BEEP. "Ugh" Jack Bristow muttered before rolling over in bed and hammering his alarm clock, he recoiled in shock when he saw the time " 7:00! Why the hell did I set that for 7:00, Its Christmas, I shouldn't have set it at all! What was I thinking?"

"You didn't set it darling, I did." a voice carried over from the other side of the room.

"Irina? Why? What are you doing up so early? And why are you already dressed? Its Christmas Day for goodness sake, we can have a lie in." Jack replied, in shock at the sight of his wife ready to start the day.

"We have a lot to do, I want today to go perfectly, I need to get the cooking prepared before the others come over and besides, I'm not dressed for today yet, these are just what I'm wearing for breakfast!" She said, looking down at her favourite pair of navy blue sweats.

Jack shook his head in amusement "Nevermind, forget I asked."

"I will, now are you going to get out of bed to help me or are you going to make me cope with all this on my own?" Irina asked, bending down to kiss her husband on the lips, adding "Merry Christmas by the way".

Jack sighed and then burst out laughing; Irina was making a face to emphasise her helplessness. " I'm coming, I'm coming. I don't trust you with the oven anyway, something always seems to burn when you have been using it!" He smirked.

"Hey! That's not fair, just because I spent years microwaving as it was a convenience it doesn't mean I don't know how to work an oven." Irina retorted.

"Whatever" Jack answered before pulling himself up and kissing his wife on the lips "Merry Christmas Sweetheart, now lets get going shall we?"

A few hours later Irina was busy chopping up carrots at amazing speed, ready to mix them up with turnip and make vegetable mush. Jack was checking on the chicken that he had finally allowed Irina to put in the oven, but not before he had made sure it was on the right settings, he was fed up of eating overcooked meat. It was a good thing that he usually did the cooking and that when Irina did, she used the microwave. Dmitri, Yelena and their kids had gone on a drive around LA as they had never been there before, and Katya was with Russell, Sark, Mariana and the kids in the garden, playing with their new toys. Sark and Russell were improving their golf swing with the sets Katya had given them a few hours previously and Katya and Mariana were helping Christina and James play with their new puppies their parents had got them, luckily they would be flying privately back to Italy. Irina used this preparation time to gather her thoughts on the last few hours.

Wow, what an amazing Christmas this is. I can't believe I have finally got to see Yelena after all this time, I missed her so much. She has done so well considering everything we put her through at home; meeting Dmitri was the best thing that happened to her. Of course, it would be better if he wasn't SVR, but beggars cant be choosers as they say. And what was that between them last night? It looked like they had been arguing when they sat down at the table, I wonder if it had anything to do with Sark, they did seem somewhat shocked when Katya introduced him. Huh, he seemed pretty nervous himself actually, maybe he thought Dmitri would go crazy on him. Did they even speak at all? Irina frowned and turned to Jack. "Hey, I was just thinking, did you see Dmitri or Yelena talk to Sark at all last night? The air between them didn't seem that friendly to me."

"No, they didn't, it seems Dmitri is quite, annoyed, shall we say, that he wasn't informed Sark would be here. He came to see me last night and asked why I had willing allowed an enemy into the house, and he said had he known he certainly wouldn't have come." Jack answered with a grimace " Does he think I'm completely stupid? I may be CIA but that doesn't mean I'm not going to take logical security measures. If I thought Sark was a security threat at this moment in time then I wouldn't have let him in, simple as that."

" Sark's fine darling, don't worry about that. I don't see why Yelena didn't come to me and say something though, we grew pretty close again last night you know" Irina replied with another frown. "Oh Damn" she muttered under her breath, as she realised whilst she had been fretting she had started cutting up the chopping board as well.

"Yes, I'm well aware that you didn't stop chatting till about two in the morning with your sisters because a) you kept bursting into laughter and b) when you came to bed you removed my part of the duvet. I was freezing thank you very much. I don't care about Sark anyway, I don't believe he would try anything with his family here, he does have some humanity. Have you considered Yelena kept it from you so you wouldn't get upset and think they were going to leave. I have a feeling she won the argument with Dmitri, I doubt they would be here otherwise." Jack answered; moving over towards the sink to make sure they had enough washed cutlery.

"You think their argument was bad? Irina asked whilst searching the many cupboards for another chopping board I know I have one somewhere dammit

" Well considering the mood Dmitri went into when you three ladies started gossiping to high heaven, he felt completely out of place, yet he didn't make any move to talk to Sark or Mariana all night. I was sitting there having two conversations at the same time, one in Italian and one in Russian, three when one of you wanted to ask me something random about the past. That implied to me Dmitri didn't want to communicate with Sark, and this he confirmed with his own words a few hours later. Yelena however kept on glaring over at Dmitri during her conversation with you, I think she was silently prodding him to talk to Sark as if they had already gone over the matter." Jack answered, now looking for a knife he had misplaced whilst drying the cutlery Where on earth did I put it? It's her favourite knife! It's the only one with the perfect balance for carving meat in her world. Ugh, she's gonna go crazy if I don't find it soon

" I hope they manage to find some conversation for over dinner, otherwise it's gonna be extremely uncomfortable, what with the Vaughns not being able to speak Russian, and not wanting to talk to me. Do you think we should maybe put Sark, his family, the Vaughns and our grandkids on one table and all of us on the other? I'm sure they will all find something to talk about in French." Irina asked, raising her eyebrows at her husband's behaviour Does he really think he put that knife in the cleaning cupboard? I can't believe he didn't notice me swipe it, as if I was going to let him look after it

"Don't be silly Irina. The two tables are going to be put together, nobody is going to sit separately. I, uh, don't suppose you've seen any knives sitting around everywhere have you? He asked with a frown, he still couldn't figure out where he'd put it.

"Jaaack" Irina waved the knife she was using. "Are you looking for this?" She asked with a grin.

"Ah, yes. But how? When, did you take that? I could have sworn I was drying that only a few minutes ago." Jack frowned again

"You were, but I knew if I wanted to use it I would have to keep it in my possession, you are absolutely hopeless with putting things away, you shouldn't be allowed near the kitchen" Irina answered, still grinning.

" Somebody has to be in it to keep you out of it, I've lost count of the times we have had to repaint the ceiling or replace the oven" jack retorted, grinning back.

Irina was just about to get into a tea towel fight when the doorbell rang "That'll be Yelena back, I'll go let them in.

One hour later Dmitri, Yelena, Anja, Leyna, Imena Katya, Russell, Mariana, James and Christina were sitting talking in the living room adjoining the kitchen when a shriek was heard so loud they nearly all jumped out of their seats "Grandma!".

The next minute Irina was being dragged out of the kitchen into the living room by a small girl with a big grin on her face, chattering at three times a normal persons speed. Suddenly she stopped when she saw 9 unfamiliar faces staring at her. Georgia had recognised her Aunt Katya but was so overcome with shyness that she hid behind Irina's leg. "Grandma, who are these people?" she asked meekly.

" Its OK sweetie, these are your family. Don't you remember your Aunt Katya?" Irina inquired gently.

"Yes, but I don't know who de other people are, mommy explained but I forgotted what she said.

" Forgotten, not forgotted George" Syd corrected from behind her father who was entering the room at that moment, "And don't worry about it sweetie, I don't know any of them either" This last sentence caused everyone to laugh, breaking some of the ice.

Immediately Katya jumped up and hugged Syd and Georgia, " Its so good to see you guys again, Happy Christmas!"

"Its good to see you as well Katya, I can't wait to meet this family of yours you and mom have been bragging about." Syd replied.

Just then Sark entered the room talking animatedly with Vaughn, Celia and Josh. Claudia followed close behind with Stephanie, Marie, Pierre and John, all discussing French superstars. Sark and Sydney stared at each other for a quick moment before a welcome hug. Syd saying "Hey you. Happy Christmas" before Sark replied with "Hey. Happy Christmas to you too. " Both had previously agreed beforehand that for the sake of their families they were going to act civil and loving rather than sarcastic and hating.

There followed a small awkward silence before Irina cut in, "Now let me make the introductions so we can all get to know each other better" these words sparking off first thought patterns in the minds of many of those present.

"Sydney, Michael, everybody, this is my youngest sister Yelena, her husband Dmitri and their three daughters…


	8. The Dinner Pt 1

Disclaimer: JJ Abrams and co own Alias, not me.

A/N. Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for.Part one. Please R&R and special thanks to Ekai for reviewing most of my chaps and listening to my seating dilemma!

"Grandma?" , Irina turned around at the sound of Claudia's voice floating through the kitchen door.

"Yes sweetie?" Irina answered before instinctively walking to the microwave when it beeped to remove the sauce.

"Grandpa and Daddy say the table is ready to be set, can me and Georgia and Christina set it? Please? Claudia pleaded, now standing half a metre behind Irina pouting.

"Sure you can, but get Mommy and Mariana to help you ok? And can you ask your grandfather if he is sure there are enough chairs out? I don't want it too look like we didn't't want someone to be here" Irina asked

Well at least that's the conclusion Celia would come too given the chance to speak her mind. I noticed that look of disdain headed my way earlier, and I heard that unsavoury comment about me she whispered to her daughter, they don't call me a spy for nothing you know.

Irina had gone back to her cooking after Claudia had left the kitchen and was happily humming "Winter Wonderland" when the oven timer went off indicating the chicken was ready, and that in a few minutes everybody would be sitting down together in the same room sharing their Christmas.

Jack walked in at that moment "Hey, is that the chicken ready? Is it cooked?".

Irina scowled at this, and checking the bird declared it fine. " Can you go and call everybody and tell them to sit down? " She asked.

"Sure where are they?" Jack replied

. "Either in the garden, the den, the living room, the bathroom or the dining room, it depends on who's avoiding who really. " Irina smirked " This dinner is sure going to be interesting to say the least".

"You can say that again" Jack remarked before heading out of the room to gather everybody.

A few minutes later everyone was assembled in the dining room around the gigantic table,facing their first major problem, where everybody was going to sit.

"Mommy, I wanna sit with Claudy and Christy, I don't wanna sit near stinky Josh" Georgia whined, elbowing Josh.

"Well I don't want to sit anywhere near you either, I want to sit with Pierre and John so we can talk about cool cars" Josh smirked and nodded his head in sync with the two boys.

"Papa, Please may I sit near Georgia? She likes Barbie's too" Christina spoke, carefully choosing her English.

"Cmon Marie, lets sit at this end, so Irina can sit with her family at the other end" Celia subtlety hinted"

"I told John I would sit next to him, he gets very picky about his food and wants me to tell him what everything is" Marie sighed.

"Julian sweetheart, are you going to sit next to your mother and answer all her persistent questions? Katya asked her son with a twinkle in her eye.

"Sure, but I need to sit near Mariana and James too, they cant understand a word of English and Russian and need me to translate." He replied.

"Hey, Mariana speaks French doesn't't she? Why doesn't't she sit next to Marie? Katya asked, raising her voice as the noise around them was getting unbearable.

"Because you want to sit near to Irina, and next to me, and Celia would prefer to be at the other end of the table from Irina with her family" Sark replied.

"Ah yes, how could I forget! " Katya grinned slightly to herself, however Celia caught this and started cursing under her breath "Well would you want to sit next to your husbands killer" Luckily the only person that heard this was Marie and she promptly told her mother to be quiet.

After another two minutes of heated debate Irina flipped and shouted "If you are not sitting down in the next 20 seconds then you won't be eating anything!"

This sudden outburst startled everybody into getting into the nearest chair, whilst the seating arrangement seemed OK from the outlook, with the Russian family at one end, the French family at the other and the Bristow- Vaughns dotted about the middle, there were two crucial mistakes. Katya had indeed ended up next to Sark, and he across from his wife, however Dmitri had ended up on the other side of him, causing a heavy amount of friction when they realised what had happened in the hurry. The other crucial mistake was that Irina was still standing up having been carrying the food, and the only place left at the table was beside her daughter, but directly opposite Celia Vaughn.

Irina slid into the seat, giving Sydney a quick smile "Sweetheart, I get to sit next to you, how lovely."

"It's great Mom, and this food looks great too. Dad and I were just saying how proud we are of you" Syd grinned and winked at her father who had ended up sitting across from her.

Irina just glared at the both of them, and turned away, only to find herself being glared at by Celia. " Why Celia, I don't believe we've had the chance to catch up, how is your Christmas going so far?" Irina asked sweetly

" As well as can be expected I suppose. The holidays are always hard without a loved one to share them with. Christmas was always William's favourite holiday, he did love to give and receive." Celia replied, her words meant to dig at Irina's conscious.

_Look at her, all happy with Jack, she took that away from me, I want her to suffer as much as me. She had a second chance with her family, they didn't die, but William did, she took away my second chance and I'm never gonna let her forget it. never._

Irina accepted this dig with no expression whatsoever, however Stephanie was confused. " I thought Thanksgiving was Williams favourite holiday, it had more food, and he didn't need to find good presents for everybody. you always used to complain about it. Don't you remember Celia?

Celia went white and Irina smirked _Ha, she didn't see that one coming, lets see her get out of this. _

" I, uh, forgot to tell you it had changed. In the last year of his life he became more thankful of others, more loving, the last Christmas we spent together he must have spent thousands on his family alone. Celia replied, thinking _Why the hell did I bring that up in front of Stephanie, she knows everything about me bar one secret, who William's killer is, she doesn't know I'm trying to take her on a guilt trip._

Irina had stopped smirking now, just glaring in exasperation, she had hoped they wouldn't bring up her old activities in front of the family, she had promised Sydney and hated to disappoint her. She glanced over at her husband and daughter to see how they were taking this, and the expression visible on Syd's face made her want to be sick. She looked so hurt, all she had wanted to do was spend a Christmas with her loving family, something that had been denied of her for over 30 years, and now her mothers actions were wrecking it.

Irina knew she had to do something to resolve the situation so she leaned over towards Celia and harshly started whispering " Will you please stop talking about your husbands death, you promised to not bring it up. And besides, I thought you had accepted my actions, William is to blame as well as me." Irina had whispered it so no one else but Celia and Jack could here it, only she hadn't counted on Stephanie leaning over towards Celia to get some cranberry sauce. She heard every word.

"WHAT?" She shrieked, causing the whole table to jump and turn to see what was brewing. She glared at them and lowered her voice, only those already listening and Marie heard the next conversation in fluent French.

"What did she just say Celia? Is she William's killer? Is that why you are being so bitchy towards her" Stephanie whispered angrily.

"Yes, she is. She worked for the bad guys and killed my husband so terribly they couldn't identify him." Directing her next sentence towards Irina she answered " I may believe he is partly to blame, and that you were just following orders, however it was your choice to kill him like that. That I can never forgive you for. I didn't even get to give him a final kiss, they were ordered to keep the casket closed."

Sydney, Marie and Stephanie flinched at this, Jack and Irina remained expressionless whilst Celia tried to prevent the tears building in her eyes from flowing down her cheeks. Stephanie however wasn't finished with her own verbal assault.

" Why the hell didn't you tell me CeCe? I take it Marie and Michel knew, but you tell me everything, why not something as important as this? How long have you known?" Stephanie inquired angrily, due to the amount of hurt she felt after being betrayed by her sister over something so major.

"Um, about 12 years. I found out after the wedding, Sydney and Michael had been having a mini argument about Irina and I couldn't understand why. I made them tell me. Marie already knew due to being one of Michel's confidants during his relationship with Sydney, they just couldn't bring themselves to tell me. I couldn't tell you Steph, I couldn't let you find out that I had allowed Michel to marry into the family of Williams murderer. I was terribly worried you would disown me, you always thought my loyalty to William was the most important part of my marriage, the institution you hold as most sacred. I couldn't do it Stephanie, I wanted to but I couldn't. I didn't want to lose you." The tears were flowing quite strongly now, and Celia quickly ran out of the door behind her in search of the nearest bathroom. Stephanie got up after a minute of quiet contemplation, trying to recover from the shock, and set off to find her sister and comfort her.

Irina and just sat there with a slightly open mouth, shocked herself by Celia's sisterly revelation. She had assumed Celia would have turned every family member bar Michael against her. After a minute she just shook her head slightly in wonder and concentrated on the food she had taken so long preparing, tuning into other people's conversations at the same time.


	9. The Dinner Pt 2

Disclaimer: If I owned Alias I would shout it from the rooftops, but I don't. Fortunately JJ Abrams does and I hope he makes the fourth series as good as the second!

A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys! The fighting isn't over yet!!!! I hope you enjoy this chapter and review, and I'll try and get another chapter up sometime in the next two weeks, depends on revision!

The scraping back of Celia and Stephanie's chairs caused Sark to look up from his meal to see what was happening, he did love a bit of drama now and then and he had decided that this dinner was pretty boring as far as family get togethers go. He was sitting next to someone who was blatantly ignoring him, on the other side sat his mother who even though said she would talk to him, was more busy concentrating on her grandson and daughter in law opposite them. Sark continued to survey the table around him, trying to see whether anyone was as bored as he was. The kids seemed to be getting slightly wound up with each other, Irina looked bewildered, Sydney, Jack and Vaughn were whispering fiercely at each other before Vaughn got up and headed in the same direction as his mother, Sark thought it was probably to see if she was ok, though wondered ever so slightly why it wasn't her daughter going instead. He then realised that Marie didn't go because she was trying to keep the quickly escalating situation among the kids under control. He then glanced towards his more immediately family and his Russian cousins, noticing that the chestnut stuffing he had been craving was being passed to Imena on the other side of Dmitri.

Dammit, I can't reach. I'm going to have to ask Dmitri to pass me it. There is no way in hell I'm going to play his game if it means I don't get any of that stuffing. I remember its taste all too well from that Christmas the year Irina recruited me. On hearing I had never had a Christmas meal, she decided to put one together for those staying in her mansion at the time. Mmm. That was the best Christmas meal I ever had. I think she must of held someone hostage for that turkey, it was so big I didn't understand how they could have fit it in the oven to cook! Turkey… I wish there was some here, but Americans don't celebrate Christmas like Europeans, they prefer to make a bigger event out of thanksgiving than the birth of Christ, and they eat the turkey then. I wonder if they have any leftovers in the fridge? I could really do with a turkey sandwich and some stuffing on the side. Ah yes, stuffing, now all I have to do is get Dmitri's attention.

Sark cleared his throat and leaned over towards Dmitri.

"Dmitri, Is it possible for you to pass the stuffing? Sark waited slightly impatiently for an answer and after two minutes decided to try again, a little louder this time.

"Dmitri? Dmitri? Can you please pass the stuffing? Dmitri?" He was really getting annoyed now; nobody ignored him and got away with it, even if he no longer worked at the very top of the business that they call espionage.

Dmitri's daughters were also getting confused at their father's rudeness; they had never seen him like this before, especially against a member of their family.

"Papa, Julian is talking to you, why won't you listen?" Leyna spoke in English, her voice full of confusion.

"Don't tell me who I can and cant talk to Leyna" Dmitri replied crossly in Russian.

Imena and Anja were now getting angry as well, they fully understood what their father was saying and couldn't stand him talking to their sister like that.

"Papa, Why are you being like that? Leyna hasn't done anything wrong!" Anja replied, followed by Imena saying " Yeah, its Christmas, this reunion was supposed to be happy, I don't know what's happening further down the table, but there's no reason to take things out on our cousin who you've never even met before."

"I don't need to have met him face to face to know he is trouble Imena, surely you can reason with that." Dmitri replied, still in Russian.

" No Papa, I cant. I have seen no evidence of him being bad, look at him, here with his family, there is no way I can reason with your view." Imena replied, gesturing at Mariana and James.

This of course caused confusion for Mariana, who could see trouble brewing and had a feeling she was somehow involved but she couldn't understand a word of the Russian. After all, her job as a SISDE analyst in Rome only required her to be fluent in Italian and French, though she could also speak Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and German as well. She turned to her husband with a frown on her face and started speaking in Italian to him.

"Julian, What is wrong? These relatives of yours seem to be angry and I have a feeling I am somehow involved?" She asked, glancing from him to his uncle and cousins.

" Its OK love, my Uncles anger is directed at me and his daughters can't understand why, they indicated your presence as a means of showing how good I am." He replied back in Italian, with a slight smirk on his face.

Anja and Imena didn't understand what was being said between the couple, however Leyna knew enough Italian to make out what was being said.

"You know why my father is being like this towards you?" She asked in Russian, for the benefit of her sisters. Katya and Yelena had now tuned into the conversation after hearing the raised voices so Katya took on interpreting for her daughter in law.

"Of course I do" Sark replied with a sigh, " I just wasn't expecting him to bring his views to a family dinner. He could have at least waited till this was over to bring up how terrible I am, well how terrible I used to be actually."

Dmitri snorted at this and caused Yelena, Katya and Mariana to glare at him. All three knew about Sark's previous activities to some extent, and all believed he had taken a backseat in his field of work.

"Once a terrorist and assassin, always a terrorist and assassin. I cant believe you think I would acknowledge you after what you have done to people in my country, as well as those all over the world. I could lose my job just for sitting here next to you" Dmitri retorted, slamming his knife and fork down on the table, suddenly overcome with anger at everybody within the room.

"WHAT?" Imena, Leyna and Anja shouted simultaneously, and this time it was the turn of the people at the other end of the table to jump and look around at everybody.

"What are you talking about Papa?" Anja asked meekly

"Your cousin Julian here used to kill people for a job, including Russians high up in the Government. He even had something to do with the death of his father, a Russian diplomat by the name of Andrian Lazarey." Dmitri looked towards Sark with a look that clearly said ' I detest you and will turn everyone against you'.

"DO NOT bring my father into this conversation. What he did to both my mother and myself was unforgivable; you will not be able to take me on any guilt trips by blaming me for his death. And yes, I did kill people, but its in the past, I work for the good guys now, I run a perfectly good intelligence organisation which works in conjunction with the CIA, MI5 and SISDE. If the SVR doesn't want my help then its up to them, they are the ones losing out." Sark retorted back.

" Don't ever expect us to ask you for help, we do not negotiate with terrorists. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to use the bathroom." Dmitri got up and stormed out, leaving his daughters in shock behind him. Whist Yelena tried calming them down, Mariana tried to get to grips with the situation at hand.

"Julian?" Mariana said with a small voice. "Did you really kill your father? I thought you said he died when you were small?

He became silent for a quick moment before answering his wife. " Yes, I told you that because I believed for most of my life for it to be true. He left me and never came back. I lost all of my family until Irina recruited me to work for her, and through her I met my mother"

He felt Katya's hand on his shoulder and his hand reached up to hold it.

"But before I met my mother it was brought to my attention my father was still alive, he still didn't have a care in the world for me and I knew there were orders to kill him, I could have stopped them but I didn't try. I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth before Mari, I just thought you would feel better not knowing."

"No, its OK, don't apologise. I should have put two and two together. I did look you up on our database and it mentioned Andrian Lazarey as your deceased rich father, but I didn't look into how he died. I guess if I had done I would have found out what had happened, and I wouldn't have had to question you just now. I'm sorry you both had to put up with such a man, I'm guessing he was one of the reasons for you not knowing each other for a long time?"

"Yes. It was only after the Covenant had killed him that I decided to do some research into my parenthood. One day a contact told me he had a year long relationship with a Yekaterina Derevko, of course I immediately set about tracking Irina down. She was hiding so well it was impossible, however I decided to watch Sydney and see how she got hold of her when she needed help. I caught her coming out of a bank in Wittengstein after a major fallout with her father, and typically she was mad at her mother as well. She knew she needed information from her and headed towards a Covenant medical facility where she believed Katya was being treated after fighting with her several hours previously. Katya of course didn't lead her to her mother, but by then I had realised Sydney had led me towards my possible mother. I used my Covenant clearance to get in the front door, unlike Sydney who had used the roof, and I went to the lab where they had been testing her blood amongst other things. I found suitable material and personnel to run a DNA test and in a few hours I was certain she was my mother. We were reunited a couple of days after the test, when she was released. We of course didn't share much trust at first, but over the next year we grew to be friends and then a few years later than that we felt like family again."

By the time Sark finished his explanation, those around him had tears in their eyes.

Katya was remembering when her son first approached her, how she felt at the time.

He was so beautiful, yet so strong. His independence gained from his years of abandonment shone through like a star at night. My baby, he had come home

Mariana was full of sympathy for her husband, she hated the thought of him being alone_ He must have thought nobody in the world loved him. Family is so important. Thank god he got the chance to find his mother, that he gained a family again._

Yelena and her daughters were crying for another reason, they knew how it felt to gain family they thought they had lost, or in the case of the girls, never had. They slowly began to accept Sark had changed if they hadn't already, as was the case of Yelena who had believed her sister when she first told her. She had instinctively known Katya wasn't lying by the look of love and proudness in her eyes.


	10. The Dinner Pt 3

Disclaimer: I own my imagination but not Alias.. I own the many characters on here you dont recognise.. and also the puppies and the fish.. but JJ owns all the rest

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I cant believe I got 5 on the last chapter! Hopefully Lena will come to her senses and come back and Irina will live happily ever after.. for the next season at least.. with Jack. Please enjoy and review or constuctively criticise if you want! Oh, and dont expect another chapter for two/three weeks, I have exams, your lucky you got this!

When Dmitri walked back into the room ten minutes later, things had calmed down a bit but not a lot. Celia, Stephanie and Vaughn had re-entered the room and were now sitting back down, avoiding the people around them. Stephanie couldn't bear to look Irina in the face and there was an awkward silence between Sydney and Vaughn, not knowing quite how to cope with their two warring mothers as they were expected to take sides. Celia had mellowed quite a bit though and could look Irina in the face without getting too furious, however she preferred to help her daughter with the kids.

What on earth is going on? She thought to herself_. I'm sure they were all eating and talking happily before I left._

It seemed that seating all the kids together hadn't been a very good idea. They had picked up on the tension between their parents and as a result, Josh was being left out of conversation between Pierre and John, and couldn't speak to either of his sisters because he had wound them up too much.

I am not going to cry, I'm not going to look like a wuss in front of those two idiots. I can't cry, I just cant. I wish Mom was next to me, to talk to me and cheer me up.

Christina was near tears as she saw her father being shouted at down the other end of the table, and Georgia wasn't being much help asking her why. Claudia had taken an authoritative stance and was saying it was because he was bad, which just caused Christina to become even more inconsolable.

Papa isn't bad, Papa is good. These people are the bad people. Why did he bring me here? They don't like us. I wanna go home. Why won't Papa take me home? I want my Grandmama Donnatella to tell me happy stories, why couldn't we go see her at her villa, why did we have to come here. Why did Papa bring me here?

It seemed to Marie that the situation couldn't get much worse, but of course it did, and it started with one simple sentence.

Georgia was confused. Very confused. She couldn't figure out why everyone was shouting at each other so she took the decision to ask her older cousins.

"Pierre? Why is everyone angry with each other? Do they not like each other any more?" she asked with a frown, and tears welling up in her eyes.

"Of course they don't stupid. Your family are terrible people, its their fault everyone's mad" Pierre scoffed.

Josh took immediate insult to this and finally spoke up in defence of his family.

"Don't you dare call my sister stupid French boy. It's not her fault your family is pathetic and can't cope with problems."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean? Your grandmother upset mine, not the other way around. And your sister is stupid, both of them are, Claudia has no brains whereas Georgia is a little cry baby."

"I SAID DON'T INSULT MY SISTER" Everybody at the table jumped for the third time since they had sat down at the start of the meal, and Sydney had finally had enough.

I can't take this anymore. It ends right here. I'm not repeating what happened to me to my kids.

She looks over at Vaughn, blinking her thoughts quickly in Morse code. He nods in agreement; she thanks her lucky stars that she learnt Morse code more extensively after her father was captured when they worked for SD-6.

The noise levels started to rise again after a moment and Sydney jumps up and bangs her fist on the table, not too hard but hard enough to gain everyone's attention.

"Right, that's it I've had it. Kids, leave the room." No movement.

"Now." She said it so sharply that Claudia, Josh, Georgia, Pierre and John immediately pushed back their seats and walked quickly out of the room.

"This was supposed to be a happy family meal and it's turned into one big argument. The meal is over. Yelena, I was happy for you and your family to come here but I made it very clear I wanted no trouble, unfortunately it seems your husband did not agree to those terms and therefore I am going to have to say goodbye."

"Sydney? There is no way in hell I'm sending them out onto the streets at Christmas, they are my family for godssake" Irina replied with a frown

What the hell is she thinking? I only just got my sister back, I thought she understood

"You don't have to Mom. Vaughn and I are leaving with the kids, you can sort out your intra family problems however you like, but I won't be around for it." Sydney then turned to Celia, Stephanie and Marie.

"Before I ask you back to our home, I want you to understand some things. I will not in any way tolerate people insulting or upsetting my children in any way. Celia, I want you to apologise to my mother who went to the trouble of cooking this lovely meal, and I want the three of you to talk to Pierre and John and explain what they have said is unacceptable and that it is not true."

Celia opened her mouth to object but Sydney saw this and cut her off.

"Some of the stuff they did say may indeed have been true to some extent but I don't want either of them or my kids to know about it. It is in the past and it stays in the past. Will you agree to this? "

Celia is staring at Sydney with slight shock, yet manages to nod her head and mumbles " That's fine"

"Right then. We can leave now. Sark, it was good to see you and it was extremely nice to meet your family. I'm glad you found some happi…" Her words were cut off by a shriek and the words "Stop it, Please stop it". It sounded like Georgia and the adults suddenly became aware a fight was going on in the next room. Sydney raised her eyebrows "Vaughn, could you go and sort that out, I'll finish what I'm saying and I'll be out." Vaughn nodded "Right on it" and left the room quickly.

" Anyway Sark, I'm glad you found happiness and hopefully I'll see you on good terms soon. Katya, the same goes for you, give us a call next time you're in LA. Mom, Dad, I'll see you both sometime in the next week probably, and Yelena, maybe we'll see each other again some day. "

Sydney got up from the table, kissed both her parents on the cheek and walked out the door Celia had exited earlier. Once in the hallway she took a deep breath and willed the tears forming in her eyes to go away. She heard movement behind her and found Celia, Stephanie and Marie following behind her, and they came to a stop outside the den where Vaughn was telling off the kids. One look at Josh and Pierre explained whom the fight had been between, the black eye and bloody nose on Pierre and Josh's bloody lip said everything.

Marie rolled her eyes and pulled her sons out of the room, Georgia grasped Sydney's hand whilst Vaughn marched Josh out of the room and Claudia followed him. They were out of the house within the next two minutes, the kids were quite confused as to why they weren't going back into the room but knew better than to question their parents in the moods they were in. The ride back the house in the car was silent, Claudia sat in the passenger seat next to her father staring at the radio. She was too nervous to ask him if she could put in on, the wrinkles on his forehead were increasing every few minutes. Sydney sat in the back between Georgia and Josh, Georgia was taking a small nap whilst Syd treated her son's lip.

Poor kid. He really wanted a fun Christmas with his only cousins, and look what happens. Hopefully they aren't going to be like this for the rest of the week. I don't think I could cope with that. Oh God, Mom is going to kill me for leaving the dinner. She doesn't know my reasons, they probably think I repressed that memory. I wish I had.

In the other car however the noise levels were slightly louder. Stephanie was looking out of the window, trying to figure out how they would end up spending the rest of the day whilst Celia and Marie were patiently explaining to Pierre and John that they had got the wrong end of the stick, and that they weren't terrible people. Celia had been frantically trying to find a lie that they could utilise to cover the real reason she was mad at Irina. The kids had figured out it had something to do with their grandfather and Irina so in the end she told them it was because Irina and William had worked together as representatives from different companies. Unfortunately Irina's work deliberately got William into some trouble and the stress caused him to have a heart attack and he later died. She stressed that Irina's company was more to blame than Irina was, yet she used her to take out the blame on.

" I was wrong being like that towards her, but I was missing my William desperately. The reason Stephanie and I were upset was that I hadn't told her Irina was the one William had been working with, but we are fine now, aren't we Stephanie?"

Stephanie turned around at the mention of her name and nodded. " Yes" she replied "I'm sorry if our arguing upset you kids, I was just a little bit shocked, but I'm ok now, we're ok now."

Marie then spoke up "So will you two be able to play civilly with your cousins now? Neither you nor they have done anything wrong, you shouldn't be fighting with each other. Pierre, it would be nice if you apologise to Josh for upsetting him and giving him that lip. And if you apologise to his sisters as well for insulting them he may apologise to you for getting you in this state.

Pierre winced while his mother checked out his face but agreed to apologise. He didn't want to fall out with Josh, he and John had been planning to have lots of fun with him in LA, and he hadn't really meant what he said about Claudia and Georgia, he was angry and it was in the heat of the moment.

I hope this works, Sydney and Michel will be able to use this with their kids as well if they haven't already given an explanation. Oh dear, what if they already have said something different? We need to get to that house and fast….

Within ten minutes they had arrived at the house, and after everybody jumped out of the cars, they all set about making apologies. Pierre and John ran over to where Josh and Claudia were teasing Georgia for falling asleep and a couple of minutes later they were all smiling. Celia, Stephanie and Marie walked over to where Syd and Vaughn were standing and explained their cover story. It was agreed on as a good cover and Syd made a mental note to tell her kids it when they asked.

They started to head towards the door and entered the house. The kids went to the den and the adults were on their way to the kitchen when the phone started to ring in the hallway. Sydney doubled back whilst the others headed on, and this she became thankful for as she suddenly collapsed into the hall chair, in shock of the information she was receiving over the wire.


	11. Sixteen Years

Disclaimer: I dont own Alias but then you already knew that.

A/N: Ok, so know I said it would be three weeks but I needed a break from revision after a 3hr exam so I wrote this. Its half its usual length and its a different style of writing from normal.. but I hope you like it so please read and review. Also, sorry if you got confused at any point in the last three chapters, I know there are way too many people to keep track of ! Thanks for your reviews!

Sixteen years. It had been sixteen years since she had first wanted to hear those four words. To most in the outside world, they would be thinking the opposite. They would be questioning why it had to happen. They would re-evaluate their beliefs, but she knew better. Her last twenty-three years had shown her the private side. She knew the truth; they were the ones in the dark.

The caller themselves didn't know the truth, she could tell from the tone of voice. They were sympathetic, upset, confused as to why something like that would happen to someone so good, so caring. She remembered feeling like that once, no twice, maybe even three times. Once, when she was six, and then twice when she was in her late twenties, though she knew better then.

She wanted to get up out of the hall chair, move into the kitchen and join in the laughter that was floating out of the room, but she couldn't move. She didn't know how she felt. Yes, she was happy that part of her life was finally over, but she was also sad at the same time.

She could remember vividly why she enjoyed that life twenty-three years ago, the caring part, where she felt wanted and felt she had a purpose to fill in the world. Of course that happiness ended, like most of the happiness in her world did at some point. Nothing was ever straightforward, something always got in the way of her having a normal life back then. It had become slightly better recently, her family was together again, as were she and Vaughn and now they had a family of their very own.

But she couldn't help but think back to the old days. To her carefree life with Francie and Will, to her great university course, and her new knowledge of the world. She was happy then too, discovering new things, especially love. She closed her eyes and leant back into the chair, remembering. First there was Noah, and that undeniable chemistry they had whenever they made contact. His goofy, mysterious grin and his inability to commit. Her immaturity in a dangerous yet thrilling world. She had to admit they made quite an unusual couple, but they were happy, and that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't made the call, accepted the job.

Of course he left, as everyone did in her life for a period of time. But he came back, but that wasn't until after Danny. Danny, the guy who turned her whole life upside down without even knowing it. Of course it didn't help he was dead at the time, but his death led to greater things. Firstly though, it led to hurt. One person she thought she could trust her life with turned out had been lying to her, and how did she find this out? From the one person she had replaced with him. Her ever so distant father, the one she thought had given up on her completely. But no, he had come back. Told her that her whole life was a lie, showed her the truth about the world, just like she thought she had found out seven years previously.

Through him of course she had met Vaughn. Her soulmate, the one she couldn't part with, the one who tortured her showing love to his wife. OK, so she was evil and Vaughn came back in the end, but for a while there her whole life was upside down again. And whose fault was it that the evil bitch had married her Vaughn in the first place, whose fault was it that she lost two years of her life? It was the Covenant's. And why did the Covenant exist? Milo Rambaldi, that's who. Thinking about it, most of her problems were related to that man, but, she thought hopefully, they were going to be reduced after this latest event.

She suddenly became aware of a noise, it sounded like someone calling, and then it got clearer. It was Vaughn, wondering where she was.

"Syd? Are you OK? Who was on the phone?"

She opened her eyes and sat up in the chair, leaning backwards on her hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, got a little bit of a shock is all."

"Who was that on the phone?"

"It was a guy, Henry Greenski I think was his name. It's a Swiss name."

"Who is he? And why is he calling you on Christmas Day?"

"He had some news for me. He phrased it as bad news, but I don't think he knew the truth, at least it didn't seem like it." She tilted her head to the side, contemplating whether he knew.

"Syd? What did he say? You're not making any sense!" The amount of wrinkles on his forehead were increasing at an alarming rate.

"Ah, sorry. My thought patterns are all messed up to. I keep on jumping from one memory to another. Its like my whole life is flashing before me so I can analyse every little detail." She seems slightly distant during this last sentence, so Vaughn decides the only way he is going to find out what happened is to phrase his question clearly and loudly.

"Uh, Syd? Sweetie, still not making any sense. What.Did.He.Say?"

"Oh, sorry. He said… he said" She paused as her memory raced to recall the exact moment

"I'm so sorry to have to tell you this but you are second next of kin and I have instructions I must inform you directly if anything happens"

"What's happened?" You remember asking, bracing yourself for the answer, though you had suspicions as to what it might be, after all not just anyone would put you down as next of kin…

And then she remembered as clear as day, those four words spoken so solemnly she had to fight the urge to burst into a fit of giggles

"Arvin Sloane is dead"


	12. Of Ceilings and Allergies

Disclaimer- JJ Abrams owns Alias not me...

A/N. Thanks for your lovely reviews, they cheered me up very much, so it would be nice if you were to review this chapter as well! I know this isnt the greatest chapter, the story should pick up next chapter....

**Chapter 12- Of Ceilings and Allergies**

Vaughn blinked a couple of times, trying to comprehend what he thought he had been told.

Did she just say Sloane's dead?

"What? How, When, Where?" He asked, still pretty shocked at the revelation.

"It was a couple of hours ago, in Switzerland." Syd paused for a moment before carrying on. "Henry said that he had been in the office, just finishing up an emergency meeting with his senior staff. There had been maintenance work going on the day before in the room above his office, apparently the ceiling had been weakened, and when someone walked across the floor above, the floor fell in. A large piece of roof lodged itself in his abdomen, he was screaming in pain and was having trouble breathing, so when the medics injected Morphine he couldn't say no, and he went into Anaphylactic shock. They tried for 30 minutes to revive him but he had gone. The injuries and the allergic reaction were too much for his body to cope with."

She shook her head slightly amused by the irony of it all. "You wouldn't have thought would you? That of all things it would be a ceiling and an allergy that killed Arvin Sloane, one of the greatest criminal masterminds of the 21st century"

Shame he knew me from the minute I was born, why the hell did my Dad have to be best friends with him of all people?Ah, how could I forget.. Rambaldi.

"I've gotta say this, I know I shouldn't cos you know he's dead and all, but shouldn't he have seen it coming? I thought he could see into the future" Vaughn grinned ever so slightly, and looking into Syd eyes he could tell she was pretty amused as well.

"Oh man, I'm gonna crack up. When did you become Weiss anyway? That's his kind of comment" She poked him playfully in the ribs

"He's taking a break, I think Jules has got some kind of influence over him finally." Vaughn retorted, rolling his eyes ever so slightly at the thought of Weiss behaving.

" I just knew all that guy needed was a wife and family. Why oh why didn't we try to find him one earlier? We could have been saved from years of wisecracks" She held up her palms in frustration, a grin taking the place of the frown she had been displaying.

Vaughn grins and looks more closely at Syd's face. He noticed she seemed kind of sad and was about to ask whether she was ok when the phone rang again. Syd reached over to the phone and placed the receiver to her ear.

"Hello?" She answered quietly, wondering just how many people felt the need to call her on Christmas Day

"Sydney? Its me." Her father's distinct voice bellowed over the phone

"Hey dad, what's up? Is mum mad?" She could just imagine her mom getting frantic, and when her Mom alternated quickly between sadness and being angry it was best to stay as far away from her as possible. She figured her father had taken to phoning her to escape her mother's wrath.

She listens for a minute as her father complains to her about Irina's present mood before she replies "She'll get over it, she never stays in a sulk for long these days. You know that."

She laughs at something her father says and then her face suddenly becomes serious. "Hey dad? I've got some news for you actually. I just got a call from Switzerland. Apparently Sloane's dead."

"What sweetheart? Arvin's dead? Who was it?" Jack Bristow was momentarily stunned, and that usually took a lot of doing. When Sydney looked back at her childhood she could remember thinking that nothing could surprise him. He always acted like he expected whatever was thrown at him, and took it all in his stride. One notable exception of course was her mother's 'death' but then all she could remember from that time was being told she was dead, everything else was a blur.

"What?" She couldn't quite figure out what he was asking, her thought patterns were messing around again.

"Who killed him? Do we know them?" Jack asked sharply, easing quickly into his work mode.

"No, he wasn't killed by anyone as such, he was in an accident at work, the ceiling fell in. He sustained internal injuries and then was injected with morphine. That messed up his body pretty bad, and being in his sixties didn't help matters much."

"Who told you? Do we have confirmation?"

"His doctor in the Emergency room called. I was second next of kin and the medical records had strict orders I should be called in the event of death. I was just about to call you to ask you to sort out the confirmation. Like I said, I only just received the news myself."

"I'll do that immediately. But I called to see how you were feeling sweetheart, you still seemed pretty angry when you left the house." He changed back from work mode into being a concerned father. He had much improved in this area over the last decade, Irina's reappearance in his life being a big influence. That and he wanted to be able to give Irina a valid excuse for why they left. He would give anything to calm her down at that moment in time.

"I'm gonna be fine dad, really. Its just, I, um, remembered that Christmas where your family came over and there was a big row. I didn't want for my kids to have to go through that is all"

"You remember that? Sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I never meant for that event to happen, they shouldn't have even been there." Jack cringed inwardly _No wonder she wanted to leave, at least Irina should understand. Then Ill have a couple of minutes peace before she takes herself on another guilt trip…_

"I know you didn't dad, I remember the argument you and mom had about it as well"

"You do? How? You weren't there were you?" He searched his memory, but all he could see was Irina, well actually Laura, getting more and more annoyed at him for not wanting his family around at Christmas. He could remember her talking about how Christmas is for families, and how it's a time for forgiveness.

"I came back downstairs to get something I left behind, I found you both arguing in the kitchen. You didn't even notice me in the doorway and you're supposed to be two of the greatest spies in the world."

"I'm really sorry sweetheart. You shouldn't have had to experience that." He said solemnly.

"Its ok Dad, I've got to go though, Celia is calling something about food and Georgia... I'll catch up with you later. Say sorry to Mom for me."

"I will, love you sweetheart."

"Love you too. Bye"

"Bye"

Vaughn looked over at Syd, who was frowning again. "Is your dad ok?"

"Yeah he's fine, just escaping Mom for a few minutes" She replied with a quick grin

"Are you ok? You seem slightly distant after the call." he asked concerned

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just shocked. He was like a father to me at some point, I guess I'm grieving that part of him in my own weird way. I don't really want to think about it now; I'll analyse all my feelings later and concentrate on dinner for now. Cmon, lets go see what your Mom is on about."


	13. Pillow Talk

Disclaimer- Alias aint mine, go see JJ Abrams! I do however own the horrendous amount of characters here depicted that don't appear in the programme in any form.

A/N. Sorry for the short update guys. Too much work and its supposed to be my hols! Also sorry for the last chapter being bad, I hope this is slightly better! Please R&R it would be very nice of you!

Chapter 13- Pillow Talk

A few hours later Irina was in her room after telling everyone she needed a lie down. In truth she just wanted to escape the hell that had occurred over the past few hours.

Please, let this be a nightmare, let me wake up and find none of this has happened. That my family hasn't broken apart, that my daughter isn't mad at me, that my sisters aren't mad at each other.

She slipped off her shoes and climbed under the covers, hoping to pull them over her head and make everything go away. Her head was just sinking into her pillow when she heard a short knock at the door.

"Irina? Are you ok" a voice called out.

Jack. What does he want? To say I told you so? To tell me my family is screwed up? To tell me my idea ruined Christmas for everybody?

"I'm fine Jack. Go away." She grumbled loudly, temporarily lifting her face from the pillow to let out a groan of frustration.

Jack sighed and pushed open the door, then came and sat on the edge of the bed. Irina was still cowering under the covers but she sensed his close presence, the smell of his cologne comforting her.

"Sweetheart, you're not ok. Come out of those covers and talk to me" He pleaded, his eyes showing sadness at Irina's state of mind.

Is life ever going to be easy for her? By now she probably thinks she can't trust anyone to be happy around her. What can I do?

"No. I don't have to if I don't want to" She mumbled and turned over quickly so she was facing the other way, away from Jack.

"Irina will you stop being so stubborn, and what on earth are you taking out on me? I have been on my best behaviour all day, like I promised I would to you and Sydney. Remember?" He said slightly more sharply, he was getting a bit annoyed now.

This whole mess isn't my fault; for goodness sake I'm the one who's been keeping the peace, trying to keep everybody happy.

She slowly pulled the covers down to her nose, so her eyes were peeking out over the material. Jack could tell immediately she had been crying, her eyes were pretty red and her mascara had smudged on her cheeks.

" Nobody's been keeping promises today though have they? Especially not me, I can't even keep my daughter happy anymore" she said so quietly that Jack had to lean in closer to hear her.

"Oh, sweetheart. Its not your fault, none of it is. Sydney knows that, she's not mad at you, she just didn't want her kids to have to witness a family row like the one I had with mine when she was younger, and this would have potentially been worse with the amount of combat training people have had around here." He looked lovingly at his wife; just waiting for her to say something in response that would allow her to carry on her guilt trip. She was typical like that, sometimes she carried guilt around for years, and she had obviously passed these genes onto Sydney.

"Your family row? I created that Jack! See, It was my fault after all! If she had never witnessed that she wouldn't have stormed out of here, she would have stayed, and we would all be one happy family." Tears started to fall down her face as she made this remark, and all Jack could do was shake his head and murmur some comforting words whilst taking her in his arms.

"Irina, calm down. You weren't the cause behind my family row that was my mother's fault, one hundred percent. You weren't the cause behind today's arguments either. That was your brother in law breaking some promises and Celia letting out some holiday frustration. OK?" He pleaded quietly, as Irina's sobbing started to slow down and she rested her head on his shoulder.

" 'Kay. But I just want to sleep a while. Today was way too exhausting for my system to cope with. My body isn't as tolerant anymore, I'm getting old." She let out a small smirk at this, causing Jack to believe she was going to be fine.

"Ok sweetheart. I'm going to go back downstairs and see what everyone is having for supper. I'm sure we can sort something out. Sweet dreams". He kissed her lightly on the forehead and got up off the bed before closing the door lightly behind him on the way out.

It was about 2am on Boxing Day when Irina was woken from her sleep. At first she couldn't figure out why, Jack was dead to the world next to her, she assumed that it was due to drinking a few too many whiskeys that evening.

"Bleep Bleep." A noise suddenly shattered the silence

Ah, the phone. Of course. Who the hell is causing this late?

She reached over to her nightstand and switched the bedside lamp on, before picking up her extension.

"Hello?"

"Grandma? Is that you?" A worried voice rang out.

"Josh? What's wrong?" Irina frowned, suddenly fully alert.

"Its Mom! A woman broke into the house with lots of guys with guns. She started screaming something at Mom and Dad and the men took Mom away and shot Dad. Before he went unconscious he said to call an ambulance and to call you. He said to say "Nadia". Grandma! Please help!" He cried out quickly.


	14. Searching

Disclaimer: I dont own Alias, go see JJ.

A/N Thanks to derevkobristow-spawn and Ren201 for reviewing! Some more drama in this chapter for you! Please R and R.

**Chapter 14- Searching**

_Oh my God_ Irina thought, her hands trembling. It was her worst nightmare, finally coming true.

"Josh honey, listen to me carefully." She said. " I want you and your sisters to go with your father's family to the hospital. Your Dad will be OK. So will your Mom, I'll make sure of it."

"OK Grandma. I can do that. Oh, Grandmere Celia is calling out the ambulance has arrived…" he replied quickly.

"OK, Good. Josh? I need to know, did you overhear anything that was said?" She asked calmly, knowing she couldn't break down in his earshot.

" Yes. It was the woman. She was talking loudly on her phone to someone one way out. She said 'I have the chosen, prepare at the Olim for one hour'. I didn't understand what she meant. Grandma, I'm scared."

"It's going to be OK honey. Hang up the phone and go with Celia to the hospital. Tell her we will meet her there in a while. We're going to find Sydney."

"OK grandma. I love you. Bye." He answered

"I love you too honey. See you later." She replied before hanging up the phone. She choked back sobs and leaped out of bed, before slamming closet doors open and closed so she could get dressed.

The noise immediately woke Jack and he suddenly sat upright in bed. "Irina? What the hell?" he shouted, turning his bedside lamp on as well. Irina turns around and he notices the tears now flowing freely down her cheeks.

"Its all my fault Jack. All mine. I have to sort this out once and for all." She choked on her last few words.

"Irina? What the hell are you talking about? I'm sure Sydney would prefer you talked to her in the morning rather than waking her up at this time of night…" he answered back in shock.

"She's gone Jack, she's gone." She cried, yanking her shoes out from under her bed where they had been haphazardly discarded the night before.

"Who? Sydney?" Jack questioned, trying to stay calm.

"Yes. Nadia took her. I told you. It's my fault. I need to go sort this out." She cried out even more frustrated.

"Wait, how do you know Nadia has Sydney? Maybe you had another nightmare. Don't glare at me like that! Last month you thought Sloane had taken and killed me when I was still asleep next to you." Jack retorted.

"This is for real Jack. We can't waste any time. Josh called and said Vaughn had been shot and Sydney had been taken away with an armed escort, the leader being a woman. Vaughn's last words before he became unconscious were instructions to call me and say 'Nadia'. As Irina had been rattling this off Jack had leaped out of bed and was now pulling on clothes as quickly as possible. Irina strode out of the door and Jack called out to her to wait.

Their guests had heard all the commotion and the first people Irina walked into were Yelena and Dmitri.

"Irina, What's wrong? Yelena called out in rapid Russian, but when Irina answered "Nadia" they had no idea what it meant, as they had never heard of such a person. They only grasped the seriousness of the situation when, the minute they heard the words 'Nadia' and 'Sydney' in quick succession, Katya and Sark holstered up and quickly followed Irina. Jack followed closely behind them so Yelena got the chance to ask what had happened and if they could help. All Jack said was that Sydney had been kidnapped and they were going to get her.

Five minutes later everyone had gathered in the foyer, where Irina was frantically looking through the phonebook for places that could be the 'Olim' that Nadia had apparently mentioned.

Everyone was busy pulling on coats when Irina finally called out "Bingo. There is an Olim monument at Griffith Park. It's twenty minutes away. Is everybody armed and ready to go? Everyone replied 'yes', for this was a family matter, but Yelena had one more question to ask.

"Irina? Who is this Nadia? And why are you all so worried? And what would she want with Sydney? She questioned, whilst watching Irina make eye contact with Katya, Sark and Jack in turn.

"Nadia… Nadia is my daughter with Arvin Sloane. I presume you will know of Rambaldi and his prophecies, and that Sydney is the Chosen One. Well Nadia is the Passenger and the prophecies say only one will survive, that my two daughters have to fight until one kills the other. I have a horrible feeling that Nadia is enacting out her father's eternal and final wish, to see Rambaldi's prophecies come true and meet their final endgame. We have to go now and stop her." Irina spoke, sounding more scared than ever.

Yelena was shocked, but decided not to show it. She understood her sister needed her support rather than her disapproval, and was glad to see Dmitri also understood. He was actually discussing a plan for approach with Sark, which showed how much he felt of his family deep down as he had completely refused to speak to Sark up until this moment.

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Sydney choked and kicked her feet about. She was starting to come around and had no idea what kind of environment she was in. Then she suddenly remembered. **Josh couldn't sleep so he had gone into their room. He had been hearing strange noises so Vaughn had climbed out of bed and headed towards the door to check it out. Suddenly men with silencers stormed through the door and had shot him in both shoulders. He went down and before Sydney had the chance to do anything Nadia ran in and gassed her out before gagging her. The last thing she had seen was Josh standing over Vaughn whilst he started losing consciousness**. _Oh God. Please let them be ok._

Tears were rolling down her cheeks by the time Nadia came into the back of the van where she was being held, and Syd actually thought she saw some form of regret in her eyes.

"Nadia? Why?" She asked, two simple words holding an awful lot of emotion.

" When I was growing up I always thought you should have a purpose in life. I constantly saw people around me losing it because they had nothing to strive for, no goals, they had given up on their life. I knew I didn't want to be like that. I didn't know why at the time, but seeing the internal strength of everyone in my family I understand now. And of course unconsciously I had Rambaldi. I was meant to live. So I set myself some goals. To find my real family, no matter how long it took. I thought at the time my parents were dead, but I figured they must have had some family, somewhere. My goals were met many years ago, when you and Dad and Jack found me. And of course I found out our mother was alive as well. I remember that although my appearance created chaos the world over, I felt happy inside. Sloane, my father had goals which he constantly gave his life for, his final goal, one he has had for ten years now, was to figure out what would happen when the Passenger killed the Chosen One. I truly believe that he is looking down on us and that he will achieve the happiness I found when I carry out his final wish. I will kill you tonight Sydney."


	15. Endgame

A/N: Jeez this was a hard one to write, but I didnt want you guys to have to wait another month and a half, which I am really sorry about btw. I actually drew up the tactics for this chapter at work, then lost the paper! I dont know how well you guys are keeping up with everybody.. I know I have had to go back and check how I'm spelling someone's name its that bad! Oh,and regarding spelling, I used some English in this rather than American so dont get too annoyed at me! Thanks so much to **Ren201**, **derevkobristow-spawn**, **Loozy** and **Illyria04 **for reviewing, glad you like! Please R and R

**Chapter 15. Endgame**

'I will kill you tonight Sydney' the words reverberated around Sydney's head until she felt her world going black and she fell unconscious once more. Nadia checked her watch. There were 30 minutes to go. She waited.

At the naval hospital Vaughn was admitted straight into surgery and the doctors said they were quite hopeful he would pull through. The family was sent to the relatives' room, and they waited.

Amidst LA's quieter night traffic, with the regular Limousine gliding past, 2 black jeeps sped towards Griffith Park, the ten adult occupants quietly preparing themselves for battle, both mentally and physically. The passengers sat back in their seats and waited.

Ten minutes later the jeeps drew near to the south end gates of Griffith Park, and Jack and Dmitri pulled into the nearest parking spaces they could find. Everyone hopped out of the jeeps quietly and made sure the doors didn't slam. Irina had printed off a map of the park and the monument's location within it just before they left the house, she had planned their tactical movements on the journey, and now laid the map on the bonnet of Jack's jeep and signalled for everyone to gather around.

"Right. Here's what we are going to do. Jack and I are going to climb over the wall here and here" Irina explained pointing to two points about 50 metres from each other, and on adjoining walls. "Katya, you will accompany me and Julian will accompany Jack, and when we are over we will take immediate cover behind the trees. We should all be able to see the monument from there and take out any lookout guards with silencers; I don't want Nadia to be alerted to our presence. From what I can tell there is only one building in this vicinity, and that's the Park Ranger's hut. I'm guessing she will be holding Sydney there, especially since there is a private driveway from the main road leading up to it. Yelena, Dmitri, Imena, I believe the three of you have sufficient training to covertly approach the hut from the main road and the north and see if you can spot Sydney and Nadia, also taking out any guards you see. Anja, Leyna and Russell, I'm aware you aren't spies so what I need you to do is stay with the jeeps, keep lookout, run comms if direct contact fails and Russell, since you are a plastic surgeon I trust you can provide any medical care."

"Can do." Russell affirmed, whilst the rest of the group nodded and attached themselves to the headsets Jack had grabbed on the way out of the mansion. 5 minutes later they were all in place, and on the lookout for movement. Jack and Sark clapped eyes on a couple of tall guys with AK's approaching the monument from the direction of the hut and relayed this information to Irina and Katya somewhere in the vast trees beyond them. Irina and Katya identified a couple of guys on their side of the monument and they knew they would have to take them all out at once if they were to stay undercover.

"Jack, I've got two in my vision, If Kat and I take one each now, then it should give you a couple more minutes to get your guys. Do you copy?" Irina asked in an extremely low voice.

"I copy. We are in position. Take fire now." Jack reported

Six minutes later four hearts had stopped beating and it was now safer for Irina to run towards the monument and crouch behind the side facing away from the hut. Meanwhile Jack, Katya and Sark took cover behind trees nearby and waited to hear from Yelena.

"Irina, do you copy? " A voice crackled through Irina's headset after another four minutes.

"I copy you Yelena. What's happening?"

"Dmitri took a couple of guards on the drive, and we've got movement. Imena thinks she can make out a woman and two men, along with someone being dragged, moving out of the hut and in your direction."

"OK. We're ready. The three of you should head back to the jeeps; we need you there as backup. The four of us should be able to take the guards straight away. We'll find some way to deal with Nadia when the time comes. We are going to take the silencers off, so when you hear gunfire expect to hear from us every two minutes. If you get no reply, go towards the monument as fast as possible."

"We copy. Over."

Two minutes later, at precisely three minutes to three am, Nadia came into Irina's line of vision. Irina could see Jack raising his gun, and signalled to Sark to get his attention and stop him from shooting immediately. Irina wanted to know what was going to happen first, so she rested her gun on her lap, and listened.

'OK, Mickey, Spike, you can leave her here. " Nadia pointed to a spot right next to the monument. " Hey, wait a sec, where is everybody?"

It was at this moment the four family members drew their guns and took out Mickey and Spike, causing Nadia to screech "Oh God! Now what?"

She looked around but couldn't see anybody in the darkness; she wasn't exactly the greatest spy in the world having only done six months training. Her senses weren't as honed as those of the best agents in the world, her parents and half sister included.

Suddenly a figure appeared from beyond the monument, they were hard to focus on at first, but she thought it was a woman from her stride.

"Who are you? And why the hell are you messing up my plans?"

" They aren't very good plans. I took offence to them."

" Bitch." She mentally confirmed her opponent as a woman, but still had trouble placing who they could be. " You didn't answer me, who the hell are you?"

" Well I'm sure you have a range of… names for me, but I'll stick with mother for the purpose of this situation…it seems quite fitting I think, after all this is a family matter isn't it?

"Y...You? Well I guess I should have expected it, coming to save the favoured daughter and all."

"I take offence to that as well."

"You WHAT? You take offence to me saying Sydney is the favoured daughter, when you have a happy family life with her but abandoned me as a baby. You have absolutely no right to…"

"Mom?" A groggy voice called out. "Is that you?"  
Irina leaned towards her daughter "Yes sweetheart, don't worry, everything is going to be OK"

"Oh no it isn't. This is one thing you can't deny me of my life. You denied me growing up with parents; I could have had a loving father throughout my life. But no. You took me away from him. I had to grow up in an uncaring orphanage. I spent my life dreaming of meeting the families of my mother and father… and then I find out the both of you are alive and you just didn't care. I would have found a way to carry on with my life, but my father, he introduced me to my destiny as The Passenger; he showed me I had purpose in life. And tonight I will fulfil that purpose, to kill the Chosen one. You can't try to stop me anymore." And just as the distant church bells chimed three am, Nadia drew a gun out of her waistband and aimed it at Sydney's head…


	16. Love, Actually

A/N: I bet your in shock that Ive updated so quick... luckily some people in the UK are good at sucking up..I told them I'd have a new chapter done in two hours and I did :) So thankyou so much to **Ren201** (another person good at the sucking up) **Spymantha **(hello! nice to see a newbie) **derevkobristow-spawn** (hope you like) and **Bubbles**( thanks so much for the kind words..)

And just as the distant church bells chimed three am, Nadia drew a gun out of her waistband and aimed it at Sydney's head…

**Chapter 16- Love, Actually**

As she placed her hand on the trigger, something happened in her mind. She wasn't quite sure what it was, whether it was Irina's scream of NOOOOO, or Irina's tackle to the ground that caused it. The scenes of destruction in her head became black, and they were replaced by scenes of her unhappy childhood, and of later memories with her father. In these memories, although people had said they loved her, they always seemed as if they were putting their own life before hers. And now she had just witnessed the person she thought was incapable of love, put the people she loved first before her beliefs and stopped them from destroying each other. The scream for her eldest daughter's life was so full of love that something in Nadia's brain clicked and Nadia crumbled into a state of confusion and shock.

Irina was still holding onto her whilst she hit the ground and she was still holding onto her when Nadia looked up into her bloodshot eyes and whimpered 'Mom?' before fainting.

Jack, Katya and Sark had now arrived by Irina and Sydney, and whilst Katya and Sark lifted a bruised and mostly conscious Sydney off the ground, Jack knelt down by his shaking wife and asked whether she would allow him to carry Nadia back to the jeep. She nodded meekly and whilst Jack took her second daughter away, Katya left Sydney with Sark to escort back to the jeep and sat down next to her older sister, wrapping her arm around her shoulder.

"Its OK 'Rina. It's all over now. They are both safe." Katya used such a calming voice that even she didn't realise she was capable of.

"She called me Mom." Irina sobbed. How could I have been so stupid Katya? I gave birth to two daughters who would have to grow up and destroy each other. I'm no good mother."

"Yes you are 'Rina. You are a very good mother. You spent over forty years protecting both of your daughters, you had your children when there were people controlling your every move, your every emotion, your life was completely controlled. "

"But..."

"No, let me finish. If your life was still controlled your daughter would be dead now, you wouldn't have been able to step in and stop Nadia. You wouldn't have been able to show an act of love. Sister dear, that was the most loving act I have ever seen you commit and I'm proud of you."

Irina didn't say anything, just buried her face into Katya's shoulder and let the tears fall silently. She stayed in this position for a couple of minutes, rocking gently back and forth, before Katya suggested they got up and headed back to the jeep.

Back at the jeep, Russell had taken over control and was treating Sydney's cuts and bruises with some antiseptics. She had been given something to counteract the drugs, and was now wrapped up on the back seat, looking over at her sister lying unconscious next to her. Leyna had called for an ambulance on a number Jack had given her, which would be used to transport both of the girls back to the Naval hospital for admission and observation.

Sydney looked up as her mother approached, and when she was a couple of feet away from the jeep, Sydney carefully got out and gathered her Mom in a big bear hug.

"Thanks Mom. It going to be OK, everything's going to be OK."

"I know sweetheart, I know. Are you feeling OK?"

"I'll be fine, Uncle Russ has provided me with good care." Sydney gave a slight smile

"Uncle Russ? Since when are you so informal with our family? Irina grinned.

"Since everyone worked together to save me. I love the hell outta all of you" Sydney's smile grew even larger. " This display of love and teamwork is definitely something I want my kids to see."

Irina frowned. "I'm really sorry about what happened yesterday sweetheart."

"I know. Dad told me. Its OK, really. " She added on the last part after Irina's look of disbelief.

"What else has your father said?" Irina asked, scanning those gathered around for sight of her husband. Her eyes alighting when she sees him looking directly at her, smiling when they make eye contact.

"Not much. He said he called the hospital and Celia says Vaughn is still in surgery. I just cant wait to go over there and be near him, Oh Mom, do you think he's gonna be OK?" Sydney bursts into tears at the thought of Vaughn dying but Irina grabs her and says "Yes sweetheart, he has good doctors and he has always been a fighter. I'm sure he will be fine. Now Cmon, your ambulance is here. I'm coming in the ambulance with the two of you and everyone else will follow behind."

The paramedics reach into the jeep and arrange Nadia on a stretcher, placing her in soft restraints, just in case she has a bad reaction when she wakes up. Sydney and Irina climb into the back of the ambulance with them and they start the journey to the hospital.

Meanwhile, in the hospital waiting room Mariana, Christina and James have joined Celia and the rest of the Vaughns in their prayers. Georgia hasn't stopped crying since they left the house and Celia and Stephanie are taking it in turns to console her. Josh and Claudia are curled up on the hard chairs in shock, Josh more so than Claudia as he saw the confrontation and was still very scared. With every bang of the door they all look up, thinking its Vaughn's doctor, or hoping its Sydney and the rest of the family. Jack had explained to Celia the strange situation on the phone before they reached the park, but she was unwilling to say anything until they got confirmation everyone was OK. On what felt like the door banging for the hundredth time, Sydney walked into the waiting room to be accosted by the arms of her three children. She collapsed down into a chair, hold them close and through sobs told them how happy she was that they were OK.


	17. Truth takes time

A/N: **derevkobristow-spawn: **Yay! You've seen the film? I wondered how many people would notice where I got the chapter title from! Thanks for the review. **Ren201: **Thanks for the feedback! It made me smile! **supergirl14: **yeah, I think Syd's gonna be all drained out by the end of this fic, whenever that may be! Thanks for stopping by! Sorry to **all readers** for the big time gaps between each chapter… I'm at uni now so finding time to write three fics is getting trickier!

**Chapter 17.**** Truth takes time.******

Bleep. Bleep. Bleep. The noise coming from the machine whirring above her was constant. Colours swirled around at the front of her mind, occasional snapshots of her life filtering through. Sometimes the image was strong and clear, at other times it was weak and she had trouble placing the memory.

**A storm was brewing. It had been gathering momentum all night, the rain had been lashing down outside for hours. To Nadia, this unusual weather was the first omen that today was not going to be a good day. Today was what they called d-day at the orphanage, when they all got dressed up and hoped to be picked by a prospective foster family. She could hear staff yelling out her name but all she wanted to do was ignore them. She didn't want a new family, people who want her only because they pity her. She didn't want to be treated like charity. No, she wanted her real family and firmly believed that she had some, out there in the big wide world. All she had to do was carry on waiting for them to find her, and if that didn't happen, she would just have to try and find them.**

Irina opened the door quietly and crept into the room. She moved one of the hospitals hard plastic chairs over to her youngest daughter's bedside and sat down beside her with a sigh. She could see her daughter unconsciously scrunching her forehead up, as if she was having a small nightmare. A wisp of hair fell over her closed eyelid and Irina reached over to move it, stroking Nadia's face as she did it. She sat there just staring for another few minutes, before she rested her weary head alongside Nadia's arm.

**She was lying strapped down on a very uncomfortable gurney, mentally cursing her superiors at Argentine Intelligence for sending her on the mission. She heard movement and checked she was doing everything she could to look catatonic. As she pretends to look into space she clocks the figure approaching her. It's a tall woman, her brown hair tied back in a bun. She looks somehow familiar but Nadia doesn't think they have ever met before. Nadia is startled, even though she doesn't show it, when the woman sits down next to her with a sorrowful look in her eyes. Then she starts to speak. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm your sister. I know that sounds crazy." Crazy? Nadia thought. I have a sister? Now that's crazy, it has to be. I would know if it was normal. She kept her thoughts to herself though and carried on listening. "I'm sorry it took me so long to find you, but I'm here now, and I'm going to get you out of here. You will be safe now, I promise you." The woman claiming to be her sister started to remove her restraints and Nadia really didn't know what to think anymore. She spoke again. "By the way, I almost forgot. My name is ****Sydney**

"Sydney" Nadia gasped, waking up, and then she started to choke. She looked around herself for help and it was then she spotted her mother, asleep, her head resting on her bed. "Irina?" She rasped. "Mom?" Thankfully Irina was a light sleeper and was woken up by her cries for help.

"Nadia? What is it?" She asked, frowning with concern.

"I need some water." She rasped.

"Here you are" Irina leant over her with a cup of ice chips and placed a couple in her mouth as Nadia was still in restraints and couldn't move her hands.

"Thanks" she whispered after swallowing them. She glanced down at her restraints and swallowed again, this time because she was nervous. She looked up at her mother who seemed to be expectantly waiting for her to say something. Nadia thought it was because she was upset, what she didn't know was this was how Irina usually acted in difficult situations, it was Irina all over.

"Um, is Sydney Ok?" she dared to ask.

"She's going to be fine. She's just a bit bruised." Irina responded, her face showing little emotion.

"Um, can I ask about Michael? Is he going to be OK?" She grimaced at the fleeting look of anger and sorrow crossing Irina's face.

"He should be fine. Sydney is sitting with him in recovery now. Everyone's going to be OK, and I'm hopefully including you in this?" Irina questioned.

"I don't know if... I… I… don't know anything anymore." Tears started rolling down Nadia's face and she started to hiccup.

"Oh, sweetheart, it's going to be OK, I promise you." Irina soothed her with gentle words, and put her arm around her, allowing Nadia to bury her head in her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Mom, so sorry. I didn't mean to kill them; I don't know what I was doing. It was like I was being controlled, I didn't know what to do." She managed to get out between choking fits.

"Shh, its OK sweetheart, I know you were being controlled. Rambaldi and your father don't mix well together. It's OK now though, Sloane is gone and the power he had over you has been broken, I'm not sure how but it has gone."

"I…I think I know how" Nadia answered in a meek voice.

"Do you?" Irina replied, curious.

"My father…Sloane… he always told me he loved me but it was all to manipulate me. Earlier, at Rambaldi monument, when I was going to kill Sydney, I was acting on his love, believing it was true. Then you came along and showed true love trying to save Sydney… and in a way you showed true love to me by preventing me from killing my sister, I suddenly felt something click in my brain, and it was then I realised I was doing the wrong thing, and the bond was broken."

Irina had remained still and silent through Nadia's confession but nodded when Nadia broke off speaking.

"Yes, well that would seem a valid idea. I know…well I've heard, that you think I don't love you, you believe I abandoned you, but this isn't true at all. You were taken from me, and I loved you very much. I loved you then and I love you now, I will always love you, just as much as I love Sydney. She in no way is the favourite as you like to put it, I really did abandon her, yes, it was forced, but I could have gone back and explained things when I was freed. I chose not to. I made a mistake, just as I did believing you were dead."

"What do you mean, dead?" Nadia questioned in horror.

"Back when you were taken from me, just after you were born, they told me you had died. I was in a bad way at the time, and they conditioned me so badly that I believed them. Believe me, If I had known you were alive I would have found you." Irina emphasised, squeezing Nadia's hand.

"Why… why didn't you see me 12 years ago when Sydney, Jack and my father came and got me?" Nadia replied, frowning.

"At the time you were being watched by the CIA and various other organisations. I couldn't be seen by any of them so I waited for a chance to get you on your own. Then of course you went off with Sloane, and I truly believed you wouldn't accept a visit from me. I heard from contacts you hated me and would kill me if you ever laid eyes on me. I eventually decided that you would find me if you really wanted to see me, the same way Jack and Sydney did." She explained with a sigh.

"So let me get this straight, you love me, and I have hated you for no reason whatsoever all these years." Nadia shook her head in wonder and disbelief.

"Well you can hate me for lots of reasons, because admittedly I've made a lot of mistakes, but I doing my best to rectify them." Just as Irina was finishing this sentence Sydney walked through the door, her face was stained with tears and Irina could tell she was forcing the small smile present on her face.


	18. Wordless

Chapter 18... lol sorry its been so long... hard to write! i know this is a sub standard chapter but its been giving me hell for months so finally gave up and decided to post something!

As she walked into the room she hadn't known what to expect. What greeted her was two tear stained faces looking up expectantly. Her mother looked tired but Sydney was sure she could detect some happiness there. Nadia seemed vulnerable, very weak. Sydney detected fear in her, fear she assumed at what her reaction was going to be, as it looked as if Irina and Nadia had settled things between each other.

At first, when she had visited Vaughn after he went into the recovery room, she had been angry at Nadia. She hated her with every bone in her body and wanted her to suffer. But whilst she had time to sit at Vaughn's bedside, she had time to think. She thought about her family, her upbringing. How she had never had a proper family until recently, and how badly she felt that had affected her. Then she thought about the family and upbringing Nadia had. Nadia hadn't even had one parent; whereas even though Jack was distant, he was still there, she knew he existed. If she woke up one morning feeling all alone in the world, she would know that somewhere out there, there was actually someone who did love her, even if he didn't openly show it. She also had memories of the most loving mother, Laura Bristow. If Nadia woke up in the morning she wouldn't have had the same. She would have gone down to breakfast with lots of other orphans, never knowing whether she had someone who did love her. She may have gone to her death bed not knowing she had family.

Whilst she held Vaughn's hand, a sense of relief washed over her. She knew that if the operation hadn't been enough, he would have left the world knowing he had a loving family. A few rooms away, she knew Nadia lay in a hospital bed, and she wouldn't have this feeling. Sydney wanted to remedy this. She felt things needed to be fixed, and they needed to be fixed now. Sloane was gone; it was finally time for them to all move on.

As she approached Nadia she gently touched her mother on her shoulder as she passed, before perching on the edge of the bed.

"Hi." She spoke softly.

"Hello" Nadia answered, not sure what to say.

"Are you going to be OK?" Sydney asked, looking between her sister and her mother.

Nadia glanced at her mother too, who nodded gently. "I think I'm going to be ok, I don't know what the doctors think, but I know how I feel, I'm will be ok, eventually."

"Great." This time the semi enthusiastic half smile Sydney displayed was real. However there was a hint of awkwardness in the air. Nadia decided it was her turn to have a go bonding with her sister.

"Sydney… I uh, I'm really sorry about you know… I uh... Is Michael ok?" she tried apologising, but she couldn't get the words out and ended up stuttering.

"He's going to be fine. The doctors say he can be out within two weeks, but knowing him he will try and escape sooner. Crazy guy, he gets more peace and quiet here than at home" She replied rolling her eyes, frustrated.

At the mention of home, Nadia flinched. She tried to cover it but both Irina and Sydney noticed.

"Nadia… will uh… will you come and visit us sometimes? After the initial shock of everything has worn off? It would be really nice if you could." Sydney asked quietly.

All of a sudden Nadia was overcome with a feeling of warmth, but she was brought sharply back to reality when she really thought about what the future held in store for her.

"That would... it would be lovely. I hope I can. Only… only I don't know where I will be or what I will be doing. I may have to go back to Argentina, see if any old contacts have a spare room, a job maybe… I haven't really thought of what I'm going to do next. Things don't seem so clear anymore… not now dad… Sloane has gone…"

Irina felt it was time to interrupt, noticing how incredibly quiet her daughters had gone.

'Nadia, I haven't spoken to Jack yet about this, but I'm sure he will be ok with it… I would like you to move in with us. I want this family to be finally complete, and it won't be without you. Please say you will give this some consideration? Irina looked at her youngest hopefully, almost mournfully.

Nadia was shocked. It was the most wonderful offer she had ever had in her life. She was finally being asked to be part of a family, to be surrounded by people who loved her. She didn't need time to think about the offer, she knew what her answer was going to be.

She glanced at Sydney to gage her reaction to her mothers offer, and when she saw her older sister displaying the same pleading look as Irina, she responded…

"Yes… I would love to move in with you..." and then the tears started to roll down her face, and gradually all the occupants in the room were crying with relief.


	19. Blood Ties

To those who have waited patiently for an update... thank you sooooo much for waiting. Im so sorry about the major update gaps! Ive decided that in order for me to get the chapters out, Im gonna put it in smaller parts... I was planning to go up to Chapter 20 but it may go up to 21 or 22 now...

Chapter 19. Blood Ties

'_Patients name is Nadia Santos. Date of Birth approximately 19th June 1981, Place of Birth thought to be Kashmir, not confirmed. Patient is 5'8 and weighs..' _Sydney's mind drifted as she glanced over at her sister, trying to take in everything that had happened

Irina and Nadia were talking about what Nadia needed to move from the apartment she had been using in Switzerland, the one her father had bought her so she could be close by. Sydney didn't want to talk about Sloane and his 'love', so she went back to reading about her sisters admission on the charts precariously set at the end of her bed.

'_Patient was rushed into Stafford Naval Hospital ER after experiencing period of unconscious, cause thought to be shock however there may be unknown internal brain malfunction, cause also unknown. Patient was brought in restrained on orders of government officials and blood was cross-matched upon arrival for transfusion due to a loss at scene. Blood type confirmed as B negative and two pints given accordingly…_

"Wait a sec" Sydney questioned out-loud, frowning.

"What is it sweetheart?" Irina looked at her eldest curiously, wondering what was wrong now. It had been a long day and she felt like she hadn't slept in days. Though that was probably literally true, she must have had only 8 hours over the last few days.

"It says here Nadia's blood type is B…" She trailed off and looked directly at her sister for confirmation.

Nadia shrugged. "I always thought it was O. I never gave blood… was never in hospital as a child, but my father wrote down it was O on a hospital form when I was in one of my states. Why… is there something wrong with it being B? She asked.

Irina looked as confused as Nadia. "What does it matter that her blood type is B Sydney? Yours is isn't it?"

"Yes Mom, but that's my point. You have type O… and Dad has type B which is how I ended up being type B. For Nadia to be type B her father would have to have type B blood… but Mom, Sloane had type A, I've seen him transfused before. Chances of the two of you producing a type B child are slim to none!

Irina and Nadia both silently gasped. Sydney was now looking directly at her mother and Nadia turned to her too, with the same questioning look.

"I… I always thought there was a chance Nadia could be Jack's, but when I saw the three of you accept Nadia as Sloane's daughter… I accepted that she was most likely Sloane's and let it be. I assumed that the appropriate tests would have been done to confirm Nadia was Sloane's and not your father's Sydney!" Irina spoke slowly, confused.

"Il Dire provided Sloane with a DNA string which he tested… he said he was a match… and then Nadia's location could only have been revealed in the hourglass to her father- but thinking about it, Dad was there as was I."

"You guys think Jack could be my father?" Nadia timidly spoke up, wondering what life- changing revelation would occur next.

"Well the only way to tell is a Paternity test. Ill go and get Jack." And with that, Irina left the room and headed outside to use her cellphone.

Fifteen minutes later Jack pulled his car into the hospital parking lot. Irina approached the car and gave him a peck on the cheek, which he returned.

"Irina? What's wrong? Is it Vaughn? Has his condition become worse?" He asked, not knowing why he was called.

"No… no Michael is fine thank goodness. I wanted to talk to you about something else… here lets sit on this bench for a couple of minutes.

They approached the bench and sat down, Jack looking at Irina worriedly.

"Irina, what is it?"

"Its about Nadia, Jack."

" You want her to move in with us? I thought you might, the way you were looking at her earlier. So I gave it an appropriate amount of thought, but I literally only needed a few minutes…she is your daughter Irina. She is part of the family, if you want her to move in then Im happy with that. Whatever makes you happy…makes me happy.

"She's may also be your daughter, Jack."

It took a couple of minutes for Irina's words to register, and Jack was in shock.

"Nadia? My daughter? But how? The tests…?"

"Sydney noticed a discrepancy with the blood types earlier… it seems virtually impossible from them that Nadia could be Sloane's. Regarding the DNA string Sloane tested… well he could have easily manipulated that…and the hourglass revealing Nadia's location? You were there too."

"You called me here to do a paternity test I assume?" Jack surmised, all businesslike.

"Yes, yes we did." Irina looked at Jack, trying to tell how he was reacting but wasn't in look. He had his face of no emotion on.

"Well lets go and get on with it then." He said briskly, causing Irina to frown, however a second later he turned around and gave her a cheeky grin…

_To be continued…._


	20. The Result

Chapter 20. The Result.

Stephen Rosenthal, the hospital lab technician, was beginning to regret going in that day. He had received a call two hours ago from his supervisor telling him he was about to receive two blood samples that needed processing ASAP. Unfortunately, the computer in the lab was playing up, it kept freezing and the IT guys were in some important meeting that couldn't be disturbed. Normally, he wouldn't mind. He would just tell the clients that they would have to wait a little longer, and remind them that most paternity tests took 3 days to process and he was attempting this in a matter of hours. But Jack Bristow was not an ordinary client. Ordinary clients did not bang the door open and put a gun to your head when they got impatient. He had managed to convince Jack to get a coffee in the end, but he had been gone less than ten minutes and was now back in the lab, pacing across the floor so much that Stephen was convinced had it been carpet it would need replacing soon.

..Beep.

Finally. Result. Stephen let out a sigh of relief.

"Well Rosenthal, what does it say?" Jack demanded, now peering over his shoulder.

"Its affirmative Sir, you are her father" He glanced at the older Bristow trying to gauge his reaction. All he got was a poker face.

"Thank you Rosenthal. That will be all." He stated briskly, before walking out of the room. It was only when he was out of the room he allowed a smile to creep across his face.

Nadia was sat in bed attempting to eat Jello and read a magazine one handed when Jack walked in. Irina had gone with Sydney to see Vaughn who was doing well in recovery. She paled when she realised she was alone in the same room as him. She had after all kidnapped his daughter and scared the hell out of his grandkids, and from what she had heard, Jack Bristow was not one to forgive people easily. She knew he had the test results, but she was scared how he would react, positive or not.

He stood quietly by her bed for a couple of minutes, just looking at her. She gulped. She was trying to visualise her escape route when he started to speak.

"It appears I am your father, Nadia." He looked at her, his gaze unwavering.

"O-okay". She was lost for words. Was this a good thing? Or a bad thing? She had spent so many years of her life dedicated to an evil man who she thought to be her father, and now he wasn't? Yes, it was good, that this man stood in front of her now was her father, he had proven to be a decent family man when it came to Sydney, but she felt…empty? Had she really just spent the last few years committing terrible deeds for nothing? And how was she meant to interact with Jack now? She was about to open her mouth to try and say something else when Jack suddenly sat down on the edge of her bed.

"I realise things will be awkward for a while, but I'm willing to try and make this work, if you are?" He spoke gently. Looking into his eyes, Nadia could now detect he was as nervous about this as she was.

"Yes, I really would like to try. It would be nice to experience what its like to be in a real family." She said, a small smile starting to creep across her features.

"Good, now why don't we remove these cuffs and go and find your mother and sister, I'm sure they will be delighted with this development." He reached over and unlocked the cuffs that were attached to the bed rail. She shook her now free hand to rid it of the cramp that had developed and stood up carefully, before gingerly reaching out to link her fathers proffered arm.


	21. The End

Chapter 21. The End.

It was two days later, and as Jack walked into the Bristow Mansion all he could smell was burning. Yes, Irina was cooking again. Jack sighed as he walked down the hallway towards the kitchen. He had only left her for a few hours as he went into the office to clear up paperwork regarding Sloane and Nadia.

"Jack, is that you?" She called upon hearing footsteps.

"Yes, Irina…what are you doing? And where is everybody?" He had noted his home was suspiciously quiet considering it was currently housing 14 people.

"We are trying again, Jack." She grinned. "And they are out shopping and at the park."

"Trying what again?" He asked suspiciously.

"Christmas Dinner. Now that everyone has managed to bond over gunfire and put aside their differences for a few days I think it is about time we attempted to eat together again." She raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for his response.

"Is Sydney happy about this? After last time…" He started before she cut in. "She is fine Sweetheart. We spoke on the phone while you were in work. Vaughn has been released from the hospital and his mother has agreed to come along and not make a fuss. I think she is just thankful that he is alive and that she gets to spend more quality time with her family." She surmised, whilst wafting the smoke alarm with a tea towel.

"OK. Why did they leave you with the cooking? Surely they know you are a terrible cook?" He asked, grinning.

"Well, Julian took Mariana and the kids to the park to walk the puppies, and Katya and Russell wanted to spend some alone time with them. Dmitri and Yelena don't know how bad my cooking is, and they won't find out Jack" She glared at him warningly. "They went shopping with the girls and Nadia as the sales are on, though I'm guessing Dmitri didn't really want to go, but you weren't here to keep him company. I thought I would make a start whilst the house was quiet?" She stated sheepishly.

Jack just glanced at her before hitting speed-dial two on his phone. "Sydney? Please tell me you have cooked extra chickens? Good good. See you in a while Sweetheart. Bye."

Irina glared at him as he got off the phone. "I like to see how much faith you both hold in me Jack".

"Well as the saying goes Irina, Always be Prepared." He smiled.

That night, if a passerby was to glance into the house they would see a family of 24 sat around a large oak table chatting and laughing away as a log fire burned away in the background and the lights twinkled away on the Christmas tree. They would look upon the scene and think it was the perfect wholesome family Christmas.

If only they knew.

-Fin-


End file.
